Adenosinetriphosphatase in the sea urchin egg

✍ Scribed by Connors, William M. ;Scheer, Bradley T.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1947
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 778 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030300305

✦ Synopsis

THREE F'IGURES I n recent years workers have demonstrated the presence of adenosinetriphosphatase ( ATP-ase) in cells other than muscle (DuBois and Potter, '43 ; Moog and Steiiibach, '45 ; Steinbach and Moog, '45 ; and Biddulph, Meyer and McShan, '46a, '46b).

The hydrolysis of adenosinetriphosphate (ATP) by th' is enzyme is probably important in energy exchanges of cells generally, in addition to its role in muscular contraction (Engelhardt, '46).

A. E. Mirsky ('36a) described the preparation of a structural protein from sea urchin eggs and characterized it as "myosin-like" mainly in respect to its physical properties. He noted a decrease in solubility of the egg protein after fertilization comparable to the decrease in solubility of myosin when a muscle is in rigor (Mirsky, '36b). It was suggested that the "insoluble protein," constituting about 13% of the extractable protein, formed a structural framework for cell differentiation and development. Support was given to this theory by the work of Moore and Miller ('37) who observed the development of form birefringence in eggs of Stroizgyloceiztrotus purpurntus after fertilization. Beams and Icing ('36) noted that fertilized Ascuris eggs retained their These data are from a thesis submitted by William M. Connors to the Graduate Scliool of the University of Southern California in partial fulfillment of the requirenieiits for the degree of Master of Science in June, 1947.