title: Blue light inhibits slime mold differentiation at the mRNA level.
abstract: The influence of blue light on protein synthesis in spherulating Physarum polycephalum microplasmodia was studied using two-dimensional protein separation techniques. The starvation-induced plasmodium-spherule transition proceeds in the dark and is accompanied by the synthesis of 20 major differentiation-specific proteins as revealed by in vivo labelling with [35S]methionine. Three of these proteins are identical with cell wall components with respect to their mol. wts. (35 K, 34 K and 14 K) and isoelectric points. Spherulation is also accompanied by the appearance of 26 prominent differentiation-specific mRNA species translatable in the rabbit reticulocyte cell-free system. Six of the proteins synthesized in vitro co-migrate on two-dimensional gels with proteins labelled in vivo, two of them being cell wall components. Blue light, which inhibits spherulation completely, inhibits also the synthesis of spherule proteins and of spherule-specific mRNA activity. Only three protein components are induced by blue light, indicating that illumination does not induce a novel differentiated plasmodial state.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried/München, FRG.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Putzer
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Werenskiold
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verfuerth
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schreckenbach
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008027:Light; D010804:Physarum / Q000378:metabolism*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism*; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000378:metabolism*; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016053:RNA, Protozoan