Open AccessRegulation of a ras-related protein during development of Dictyostelium discoideum.
Author(s) -
Tony Pawson,
T Amiel,
E Hinze,
Nelly Auersperg,
Nancy Neave,
André Sobolewski,
Gerald Weeks
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
molecular and cellular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.14
H-Index - 327
eISSN - 1067-8824
pISSN - 0270-7306
DOI - 10.1128/mcb.5.1.33
Subject(s) - dictyostelium discoideum , biology , mycetozoa , dictyostelium , slime mold , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , cellular differentiation , monoclonal antibody , gene product , biochemistry , gene expression , antibody , genetics
Recent work has shown that DNA sequences related to the mammalian ras proto-oncogenes are highly conserved in eucaryotic evolution. A monoclonal antibody (Y13-259) to mammalian p21ras specifically precipitated a 23,000-molecular-weight protein (p23) from lysates of Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae. Tryptic peptide analysis indicated that D. discoideum p23 was closely related in its primary structure to mammalian p21ras. p23 was apparently derived by post-translational modification of a 24,000-molecular-weight primary gene product. The amount of p23 was highest in growing amoebae, but declined markedly with the onset of differentiation such that by fruiting body formation there was less than 10% of the amoeboid level. The rate of p23 synthesis dropped rapidly during aggregation, rose transiently during pseudoplasmodial formation, and then declined during the terminal stages of differentiation. There was, therefore, a strong correlation between the expression of the ras-related protein p23 and cell proliferation of D. discoideum.