Acrasin
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a chemotactic substance produced by the myxamoebae of the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum, now identified as cyclic AMP.
| acquired tolerance, acquired immunity, acquired immune deficiency syndrome | |
| acridine, acridinium esters, acriflavin |
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Acrasin
Each species of slime mold has its own specific chemical messenger, collectively referred to as acrasins.[1] These chemicals signal that lots of individual cells should move towards each other to form a single large cell or plasmodium. One of the earliest acrasins to be identified was cAMP, found in the species Dictyostelium discoideum by Brian Shaffer[2], which exhibits a complex swirling-pulsating spiral pattern when forming a pseudoplasmodium.[3]
The term acrasin was descriptively named after Acrasia from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene[4], who seduced men against their will and then transformed them into beasts. Acrasia is itself a play on the Greek akrasia that describes loss of free will.
Notes
- ^ Evidence for the formation of cell aggregates by chemotaxis in the development of the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum - J.T.Bonner and L.J.Savage Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 106, pp. 1, October (1947) Cell Biology
- ^ Aggregation in cellular slime moulds: in vitro isolation of acrasin - B.M.Shaffer Nature Vol. 79, pp. 975, (1953) Cell Biology
- ^ Identification of a pterin as the acrasin of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium lacteum - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA Vol. 79, pp. 6270-6274, October (1982) Cell Biology
- ^ Hunting Slime Moulds - Adele Conover, Smithsonian Magazine Online (2001)
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Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry
Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology © 1997, 2000, 2006 All rights reserved.
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