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Title: Acidic intracellular pH shift during Caenorhabditis elegans larval development

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; (USA)
;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Missouri, Columbia (USA)

During recovery from the developmentally arrested, nonfeeding dauer stage of the nemotode Caenorhabditis elegans, metabolic activation is accompanied by a decrease in intracellular pH (pH{sub i}). Phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance ({sup 31}P NMR) analyses of perchloric acid extracts show that inorganic phosphate predominates in dauer larvae, whereas ATP and other high-energy metabolites are abundant within 6 hr after dauer larvae have been placed in food to initiate development. Although metabolic activation has been associated with an alkaline pH{sub i} shift in other organisms, in vivo {sup 31}P NMR analysis of recovering dauer larvae shows a pH{sub i} decrease from {approx} 7.3 to {approx} 6.3 within 3 hr after the animals encounter food. This shift occurs before feeding begins, and it coincides with, or soon follows, the developmental commitment to recover from the dauer stage, suggesting that control of pH{sub i} may be important in the regulation of larval development in nematodes.

OSTI ID:
5544566
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; (USA), Vol. 85:22; ISSN 0027-8424
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English