Energy requirements for pigment aggregation in fundulus melanophores

Teleost chromatophores are filled with individual pigment granules that rapidly aggregate to the cell center or become dispersed throughout the cytoplasm in response to environmental stimuli. Microtubules appear to be required for pigment aggregation (movement toward the cell center), and recent findings have suggested that a dynein-like ATPase may participate in force production. Based on previous studies, however, it has been argued that pigment aggregation does not require energy directly, a view that supports the involvement of an elastic component in granule movement. To examine this point further, we have reinvestigated the energy requirements for pigment aggregation using both intact cells and detergent-permeabilized cell models of Fundulus melanophores. Poisons of oxidative phosphorylation, namely, 2,4 dinitrophenol and NaCN, reversibly inhibit melanosome aggregation in response to adrenaline. Inhibition of movement results directly from depletion of intracellular ATP, since pigment translocation can be reactivated in permeabilized cells by the addition of exogenous ATP to the lysis buffer. Non-hydrolyzable analogues, including beta, gamma-imidoadenosine-5'-triphosphate (AMPPNP), beta, gamma-methylene adenosine-5'-triphosphate (AMPPCP), and ATP gamma S, will not substitute for ATP in reactivation of movement. Similarly, other nucleotides such as ADP, AMP, GTP, CTP, and ITP, have limited ability to support melanosome aggregation in metabolically poisoned cells subjected to detergent lysis. ATP itself has no effect on intact cells. These results indicate that melanosome aggregation is ATP-dependent and energy-driven, and are consistent with a role for a force-transducing ATPase in particle movement.