Phosphorylation in the Frog's Egg

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Abstract
-The work deals with the problem of whether phosphate bond energy plays a role in the transfer of metabolic energy to developmental processes in the amphibian egg. ATP was found to be present in approx. the same amts. from early cleavage through early neurula. The introduction of anaerobic conditions resulted in a decrease of adenosinetri-phosphate (ATP), with corresponding increase of inorganic phosphate at all stages investigated. The relative amt. of ATP breakdown at different stages in response to N was found to parallel the amt. of inhibition of development. Cleavage proceeds normally in N with relatively little ATP breakdown, while gastrulation is arrested in response to a N atmosphere with correspondingly greater ATP breakdown. The release of inorganic P from ATP appears to occur rapidly after exclusion of air, and to be readily reversible. Na azide inhibition of gastrulation was found to be accompanied by increased inorganic P at the expense of the ATP content of gastrulae. Evidence that phosphate-bond energy is coupled to gastrulation also came from the study of arrested hybrid gastrulae, whose lower rate of respiration and glycolysis was found to be accompanied by a decreased capacity to keep ATP (as well as an unidentified organic phosphate ester) in the phosphorylated condition.
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