Cyclic AMP levels and turnover during development of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum.

Changes in intracellular and extracellular cAMP levels are reported for the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum during its development on filter supports. Examined were axenically and bacterially grown strain A3 and bacterially grown NC-4. In each case a major peak in cAMP occurred during aggregation. In addition, axenically grown A3 showed minor rises in cAMP at 16 hr and during culmination; in contrast, NC-4 showed no increase at 16 hr but gave a very large increase at culmination. Both cell-associated phosphodiesterase and the extracellular phosphodiesterase present in the top filter were measured throughout development. Both showed activity peaks during aggregation with much lower plateau values thereafter. At aggregation about 80% of the activity per filter was contributed by the cell-associated phosphodiesterase. The rate of cAMP turnover during aggregation was estimated by following the hydrolysis of applied [³H]cAMP. A minimum rate of about 7% turnover/sec was obtained. From this turnover rate a minimum value for the stimulated activity of the adenylate cyclase was estimated as 224 pmoles/min-mg. Although this level is already over threefold greater than the highest value obtained in vitro, other experiments indicate that the in vivo adenylate cyclase activity may exceed 700 pmoles/min-mg.