Adenosine induces dormancy in starfish blastulae.
External application of 50 micrograms ml-1 adenosine inhibits development of the starfish Asterina pectinifera at the 256-cell stage when all the embryonic cells differentiate to epithelial cells. Intracellular concentration of adenosine in the adenosine-treated embryo is 2.7 times higher than those of the normal embryo whereas the contents of ATP, ADP, AMP and adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate are the same for both embryos. Adenosine causes more than 95% reduction in the rate of protein, DNA and RNA syntheses. By returning the embryo to normal sea water, macromolecular synthesis restarts and the embryo develops to the bipinnaria stage.
Tsuchimori
N
N
Department of Applied Biochemistry, Hiroshima University, Japan.
Miyashiro
S
S
Shibai
H
H
Ikegami
S
S
D000241:Adenosine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D004247:DNA / Q000096:biosynthesis; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012313:RNA / Q000096:biosynthesis; D013215:Starfish
D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA; D000241:Adenosine