JCB logo
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 668K)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JCB
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hall, Z. W.
Right arrow Articles by Kravitz, E. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hall, Z. W.
Right arrow Articles by Kravitz, E. A.
Right arrowPubmed/NCBI databases
*Compound via MeSH
*Substance via MeSH
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?
The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol 46, 290-299, Copyright © 1970 by Rockefeller University Press

ARTICLE

THE METABOLISM OF GAMMA AMINOBUTYRIC ACID IN THE LOBSTER NERVOUS SYSTEM

: Enzymes in Single Excitatory and Inhibitory Axons



Z. W. Hall 1, M. D. Bownds 1, and E. A. Kravitz 1

1 From the Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

Dr. Bownds' present address is the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the inhibitory transmitter compound at the lobster neuromuscular junction. This paper presents a comparison of the enzymes of GABA metabolism in single identified inhibitory and excitatory axons from lobster walking legs. Inhibitory axons contain more than 100 times as much glutamic decarboxylase activity as do excitatory axons. GABA-glutamic transaminase is found in both excitatory and inhibitory axons, but about 50% more enzyme is present in inhibitory axons. The kinetic and electrophoretic behavior of the transaminase activity in excitatory and inhibitory axons is similar. Succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase is found in both axon types, as is an unknown enzyme which converts a contaminant in radioactive glutamic acid to GABA. In lobster inhibitory neurons, therefore, the ability to accumulate GABA ultimately rests on the ability of the neuron to accumulate the enzyme glutamic decarboxylase.

Submitted on December 22, 1969
Revised on March 9, 1970


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents