Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.4.1 (phosphodiesterase)
 18,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The colorless flagellate Astasia longa shows a pronounced negative gravitaxis. The calcium fluorescence indicator Calcium Crimson was used to detect changes of the intracellular calcium concentration during gravitactical orientation. Astasia shows an increase of the fluorescence after a lag phase of about 10 s, a maximum after about 30 s and a decrease to the basic level within 60 s during gravitactic reorientation. The observed change in fluorescence corresponds to an almost doubling of the initial free calcium concentration. The influence of inhibitors, known to impair gravitaxis, on the calcium concentration of Astasia longa was tested. Addition of caffeine, an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase, increases, while addition of gadolinium, an inhibitor of mechanosensitive ion channels decreases the fluorescence signal. While gravitactic stimulation of caffeine-treated cells resulted in a kinetics of fluorescence intensity changes comparable to control cells the addition of gadolinium inhibited any calcium concentration change. Dynamic fluorescence imaging was used during a sounding rocket experiment (MAXUS 3 campaign). Different accelerations interrupted by microgravity intervals were applied to Astasia cells. The cells show an increase in the calcium signal upon acceleration and a decrease during the microgravity state. The results strongly reemphasize the working model of gravitaxis which is based on the activation of mechano-sensitive ion channels as one of the primary events in signal perception.
 ...
PMID:Calcium is involved in the gravitactic orientation in colorless flagellates. 1248 2

Euglena gracilis and its close relative Astasia longa show a pronounced negative gravitactic behavior. Many experiments revealed that gravitaxis is most likely mediated by an active physiological mechanism. The goal of the present study was to examine elements in the sensory transduction by means of inhibitors of gravitaxis and the intracellular calcium concentration during short microgravity periods. During the course of six parabolic flights (ESA 31th parabolic flight campaign and DLR 6th parabolic flight campaign) the effects of trifluoperazine (calmodulin inhibitor), caffeine (phosphodiesterase inhibitor) and gadolinium (blocks mechano-sensitive ion channels) was investigated. Due to the extreme parabolic flight maneuvers of the aircraft alternating phases of 1.8 x g(n) (about 20 s) and microgravity (about 22 s) were achieved (g(n): acceleration of Earth's gravity field). The duration of the microgravity periods was sufficient to detect a loss of cell orientation in the samples. In the presence of gadolinium impaired gravitaxis was found during acceleration, while caffeine-treated cells showed, compared to the controls, a very precise gravitaxis and faster reorientation in the 1.8 x g(n) period following microgravity. A transient increase of the intracellular calcium upon increased acceleration was detected also in inhibitor-treated samples. Additionally, it was found that the cells showed a higher calcium signal when they deviated from the vertical swimming direction. In the presence of trifluoperazine a slightly higher general calcium signal was detected compared to untreated controls, while gadolinium was found to decrease the intracellular calcium concentration. In the presence of caffeine no clear changes of intracellular calcium were detected compared to the control.
 ...
PMID:Gravitactic signal transduction elements in Astasia longa investigated during parabolic flights. 1465 53