Effects of Lipids and Mutations on Ca++ Regulation

虽然这项工作将在一个非常简单的单细胞生物体--原生动物草履虫上完成，但它将研究一个非常基本的问题，这个问题对所有动物细胞都是常见的，包括人类细胞。这个问题源于这样一个事实，即膜主要由脂类组成，因此，脂类的组成决定了其他膜成分的性质，如膜通道。通道性质的改变反过来会导致细胞离子代谢的失衡，这一事件最终会导致细胞病理和死亡。Hennessey博士已经证明在草履虫中存在一些自发突变，这些突变会影响膜脂的组成。其中一些突变会导致钙代谢异常。这些异常可以通过在突变的原生动物的细胞质中注射野生原生动物的液滴来“治愈”。这项研究的目的是找出注射的细胞质中的哪种特定成分在治疗由突变引起的缺陷方面是有效的。

Although this work will be done on a very simple unicellular organism, the protozoan Paramecium, it will examine a very basic problem which is common to all animal cells, including human ones. The problem stems from the fact that membranes are made up largely by lipids and, therefore, lipid composition determines the properties of other membrane constituents, such as membrane channels. Changes in the properties of the channels results, in turn, in the imbalance of the ion metabolism of cells, an event which ultimately leads to cell pathology and death. Dr. Hennessey has shown that in Paramecium there are a number of spontaneous mutations which affect the composition of membrane lipids. Some of these mutations result in abnormalities of calcium metabolism. These abnormalities can be "cured" by injecting in the mutated protozoa droplets of cytoplasm of wild ones. The objective of this research is to find out which particular constituent of the injected cytoplasm is effective in curing the defect caused by the mutation.