Ammonia can stimulate or inhibit aggregate density in Dictyostelium mucoroides: A quantitative test of the hypothesis that ammonia is the aggregation‐suppressing gas
- 1 January 1988
- journal article
- patterning
- Published by Wiley in Developmental Genetics
- Vol. 9 (4-5), 639-652
- https://doi.org/10.1002/dvg.1020090440
Abstract
Ammonia, at moderate concentrations, stimulates aggregate density of Dictyostelium mucoroides. The range of stimulatory concentrations includes ammonia concentrations established by populations of amebae. At higher concentrations, ammonia inhibits aggregate density. A quantitative test of the hypothesis that ammonia is the aggregation-suppressing gas has been carried out. The concentration of ammonia established over defined populations of amebae is one or two orders of magnitude lower than the concentration of ammonia required to exert the same degree of inhibitory effect as the populations of amebae exert. An additional difference between ammonia and the aggregation-suppressing gas is the fact that increasing concentrations of the aggregation-suppressing gas cause progressively larger aggregation streams, while increasing concentrations of ammonia have no such effect. The stimulatory effect of ammonia at concentrations established by ameba populations indicates that ammonia must be included in the variables affecting the aggregation process and that this ammonia effect must be taken into account in any quantitative modelling of the aggregation process.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Modulation of the cAMP relay in Dictyostelium discoideum by ammonia and other metabolites: Possible morphogenetic consequencesDevelopmental Biology, 1984
- Ammonia and the induction of microcyst differentiation in wild-type and mutant strains of the cellular slime mold Polysphondylium pallidumDevelopmental Biology, 1982
- Cell patterning in DictyosteliumPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, 1981
- A Possible Mechanism of Morphogenetic Regulation in Dictyostelium discoideum*Differentiation, 1978
- Effect of NH3 on c-AMP associated activities and extracellular c-AMP production in Dictyostelium discoideumBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1977
- Ammonia determines the choice of morphogenetic pathways in Dictyostelium discoideumJournal of Molecular Biology, 1977
- Acrasin, acrasinase, and the sensitivity to acrasin in Dictyostelium discoideumDevelopmental Biology, 1969
- AGGREGATION TERRITORIES IN THE CELLULAR SLIME MOLDSThe Biological Bulletin, 1962
- Cultivation and Serial Transfer of the Slime Mould, Dictyostelium discoideum in Liquid Nutrient MediumJournal of General Microbiology, 1961
- NITROGEN METABOLISM OF THE SLIME MOLD DICTYOSTELIUM DISCOIDEUM DURING GROWTH AND MORPHOGENESISThe Biological Bulletin, 1954