Stepwise sliding disintegration of tetrahymena ciliary axonemes at higher concentrations of ATP

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Abstract
Several characteristics of the sliding disintegration of Tetrahymena ciliary axonemes were found by turbidimetric assay, the ATP‐regenerating system, and quantitative determination of the ATP concentration. At ATP concentrations exceeding 40 μM, the response in terms of turbidity was biphasic and could be divided into three phases. The dependence of each phase on ATP concentration was examined. The time duration of phase 2 increased with ATP concentration. When the ATP concentration was kept constant by the ATP‐regenerating system, consisting of pyruvate kinase and phosphoenol pyruvate, the time duration of phase 2 increased with the concentration of phosphoenol pyruvate. On examining the change in turbidity with decreasing ATP concentration, the transition from phase 2 to phase 3 was found to occur at an ATP concentration of 40 μM.Dark‐field and electron microscopy indicated the sliding disintegration to be closely correlated with the degree of tubidity. At phase 1, one or two doublets extruded from most of the axonemes, and disintegration failed to progress during phase 2. At the transition point from phase 2 to 3, at about 40 μM, ATP, other doublets were noted to extrude from the axonemes one after the other, causing turbidity to be minimal by the end of phase 3.The ATP concentration dependence of stepwise sliding disintegration suggests that each axoneme may possess the ability to regulate doublet microtubule sliding at lower or higher concentrations of ATP. In response to local differences or gradients of ATP concentration along the axoneme, the axonemes may cause localized sliding of doublets, thus subsequently generating active bending movement.