Acrylamide Electrophoresis and Protein Pattern during Morphogenesis in a Slime Mould

Abstract

ADVANCES in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying morphogenesis have often necessarily depended on improvement or development of appropriate biochemical analytical techniques, which are adaptable to the particular biological material under investigation. It is fortunate that the basic procedure utilizing acrylamide electrophoresis, heretofore used successfully in the elucidation of protein patterns in various organisms and tissues such as Neurospora¹, serum protein², etc., can be extended to the slime mould. This technique coupled with experimentation on such primitive organisms as the slime mould, Physarum polycephalum³, shows promise of leading to a correlation of change of specific protein with morphological change as the organism completes its life-cycle.