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A membrane protein with possible relevance to sexual cell fusion in Dictyostelium discoideum
H Urushihara1, Y Habata, K Yanagisawa
1Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Abstract:
The molecular mechanism of sexual cell fusion in Dictyostelium discoideum was studied using the heterothallic strains HM1 and NC4. Monovalent antibodies (Fab) prepared from rabbit antiserum against a crude membrane preparation of fusion-competent HM1 cells inhibited fusion between HM1 and NC4 cells. Six out of 43 antigenic proteins were found in fusion-competent HM1 cells but not in fusion-incompetent cells. Among them, only one protein with a molecular mass of 70 kDa was able to neutralize the fusion-inhibiting activity of Fab, suggesting its possible participation in sexual cell fusion.