The origin of the phosphorus compounds in the embryo of the chicken

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Abstract
Radioactive Na phosphate was injected into hen''s eggs which were then incubated in some expts. for 6, and in others for 11, 16 and 18 days. While the phosphatide-phosphorus extracted from the embryo always showed a high specific activity (activity per mg. P), that extracted from the yolk was hardly active at all. The phosphatide molecules present in the embryo could not therefore have been taken from the yolk only, but must have been synthesized in the embryo. The investigation of the "acid-soluble" and residual (mainly nucleoprotein) phosphorus extracted from the embryo led to a similar result[long dash]namely, that the ratio in which the labelled inorganic phosphorus atoms are incorporated into the different phosphorus compounds present in the embryo is governed solely by probability considerations. Practically all the P atoms present in the various compounds of the embryo must pass through the stage of inorganic P; only the inorganic phosphorus present in the embryo is taken as such from the yolk or the white. In some expts., instead of radioactive Na phosphate, labelled hexosemonophosphate was injected into the egg before incubation. The hexosemonophosphate-phosphorus extracted from the embryo had about the same specific activity as the inorganic and the phosphatide phosphorus extracted. This result suggests that inorganic phosphate radicals which have split off from the hexosenonophosphate and from other compounds present in the yolk and the white, rather than the hexosemonophosphate molecules introduced into the latter, are utilized to build up the P compounds of the chicken''s embryo.

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