Ammonia orients cell masses and speeds up aggregating cells of slime moulds

We showed some years ago that the rising cell masses of cellular slime moulds repel one another, and that this is achieved by a gas given off from the cell masses 1 . It is now clear that this gas is ammonia. We also have evidence that NH 3 tends to speed up the movement of cells in aggregating stre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1986-10, Vol.323 (6089), p.630-632
Main Authors: Bonner, J.T, Suthers, H.B, Odell, G.M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AMMONIA
AMMONIAC
AMONIACO
Biochemistry. Physiology. Immunology. Molecular biology
BIOLOGIA
Biological and medical sciences
BIOLOGIE
BIOLOGY
CELLS
CELLULE
CELULAS
CHAMPIGNON
DICTYOSTELIUM
Dictyostelium discoideum
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
FUNGI
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
PESO
POIDS
Protozoa
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
WEIGHT
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Summary:We showed some years ago that the rising cell masses of cellular slime moulds repel one another, and that this is achieved by a gas given off from the cell masses 1 . It is now clear that this gas is ammonia. We also have evidence that NH 3 tends to speed up the movement of cells in aggregating streams which would account for its ability to repel; more NH 3 on one side of a cell mass would cause a speed-up of the cells on that side, thus making the mass veer to one side.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/323630a0