CSM News Electronic Edition Volume 4, number 15 April 22, 1995 Please submit abstracts of your papers as soon as they have been accepted for publication by sending them to CSM-News@worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu. Back issues of CSM-News, the CSM Reference database and other useful information is available by anonymous ftp from worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu [165.124.233.50], via Gopher at the same address, or by World Wide Web at the URL "http://worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu/dicty.html" =========== Abstracts =========== DIF-1, morphogen of Dictyostelium discoideum, induces the erythroid differentiation in murine and human leukemia cells. Ken-ichi Asahi (a), Akira Sakurai (a), Nobutaka Takahashi (a), Yuzuru Kubohara (b), Koji Okamoto (c), and Yoshimasa Tanaka (d) (a) The institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Wako-shi, Saitama 351-01, Japan; (b) Institute for Molecular and Cellular Regulation, Gunma University, Maebashi, Gunma 371, Japan; (c) Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606, Japan; and (d) Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., in press Summary The structure of morphogen of Dictyostelium discoideum, DIF-1, which was elucidated by Morris et al. proved to be closely similar to that of differanisole A which had been isolated by us from the metabolites of a simple eucaryote, Chaetomium, as the differentiation-inducer of murine and human undifferentiated tumor cells. This fact seemed to suggest the molecular structure playing an important part in differentiation and development beyond species. We have already examined whether differenisole A induces the differentiation in Dictyostelium discoideum, and it was morphologically and biochemically confirmed. In this study, we examined whether DIF-1 induces the differentiation in murine and human leukemia cells. Above the concentration of 2 micrograms/ml (6.5 micro M), DIF-1 induced the differentiation in murine erythroleukemia B8 cells and in human leukemia K562 cells into the hemoglobin-synthesizing erythrocyte-like cells. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [End CSM-News, volume 4, number 15]