Developmental changes in free D-aspartic acid in the chicken embryo and in the neonatal rat.
Free D-aspartic acid was measured in fertilized chicken eggs, chicken embryos, and neonatal rats. In each tissue examined a maximum value was found at a characteristic time of development. For the chicken embryo brain, the maximum was 9% D at 11 days of incubation; for the retina, 20% D at 13 days of incubation. In the neonatal rat, as in the chicken embryo, D-aspartic acid continued to increase in the retina after that in the brain and other tissues had begun to decline. The maximum, 29% D, was found 7 days after birth. Thus in two phylogenetically distant species, similar developmental patterns of D-aspartic acid change were observed. Some data on similarities between the D/L aspartic acid ratios of adult chicken and rat tissues are also reported. In addition, the total D-aspartic acid content of the egg, including the embryo, increased from 44 nmol at day 1 to 159 nmol at day 12, showing that release from a bound form or de novo synthesis is a continuing process during development.
Neidle
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Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962.
Dunlop
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D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002645:Chickens; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D009928:Organ Specificity; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D001224:Aspartic Acid