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Involvement of the second messenger cAMP in gravity-signal transduction in Physarum
1Section Biology, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, DLR (German Aerospace Research Establishment), Koln, Germany.
Abstract:
The aim of the investigation was to clarify, whether cellular signal processing following graviperception involves second messenger pathways. The test object was a most gravisensitive free-living ameboid cell, the myxomycete (acellular slime mold) Physarum polycephalum. It was demonstrated that the motor response is related to acceleration-dependent changes in the levels of the cellular second messenger cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). Rotating Physarum plasmodia in the gravity field of the Earth about a horizontal axis increased their cAMP concentration. Depriving the cells for a few days of the acceleration stimulus (near weightlessness in a space experiment on STS-69) slightly lowered plasmodial cAMP levels. Thus, the results provide first indications that the acceleration-stimulus signal transduction chain of Physarum uses an ubiquitous second messenger pathway.
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