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Polyamine starvation causes disappearance of actin filaments and microtubules in polyamine-auxotrophic CHO cells

Nature volume 293, pages 475–477 (1981)Cite this article

Abstract

The polyamines putrescine, spermidine and spermine are found in all cells and their synthesis increases markedly during cell proliferation1–3. However, their precise physiological role in cellular metabolism is not well understood. A potentially fruitful approach to this problem would be isolation and study of cellular mutants unable to synthesize polyamines. Such mutants have been obtained from bacteria3,4 and yeast5,6 but, to our knowledge, not from higher organisms. We report here the isolation of a polyamine-deficient variant from Chinese hamster ovary cells that, unlike the corresponding polyamine-depleted Escherichia coli mutant4, is absolutely dependent on polyamines for continuous replication. We show further that omission of polyamines from the growth medium of these cells causes bundles of actin filaments and microtubules to disappear but does not affect the pattern of the intermediate filaments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Virology, Haartmanink. 3, 00290, Helsinki, 29

    Pirkko Pohjanpelto

  2. Department of Pathology, Haartmanink. 3, 00290, Helsinki, 29

    Ismo Virtanen

  3. Department of Biochemistry, University of Helsinki, Unionink. 35, 00170, Helsinki, 17, Finland

    Erkki Hölttä

Authors
  1. Pirkko Pohjanpelto
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  2. Ismo Virtanen
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  3. Erkki Hölttä
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Pohjanpelto, P., Virtanen, I. & Hölttä, E. Polyamine starvation causes disappearance of actin filaments and microtubules in polyamine-auxotrophic CHO cells. Nature 293, 475–477 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/293475a0

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