Title: Measurement of adenylate cyclase activity in ram spermatozoa
Abstract:School of Agriculture, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia The activity of adenylate cyclase in a preparation is usually determined by measuring the conversion of radioactive ATP t...School of Agriculture, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia The activity of adenylate cyclase in a preparation is usually determined by measuring the conversion of radioactive ATP to cyclic AMP. Such a procedure has been used to demonstrate the presence of this enzyme in spermatozoa of various species, e.g. monkeys (Casillas & Hoskins, 1970, 1971) and rams (Tash & Mann, 1973). Since intact cells are impermeable to ATP (Roll, Weinfeld, Carroll & Brown, 1956) and since in many tissues adenylate cyclase is associated with the inside of the plasma membrane (Øye & Sutherland, 1966), tissue homogenates or preparations of cell membrane are normally employed in such assays (Rodbell, 1972). However, during the above-mentioned demonstrations of activity in spermatozoa, the cells were not treated before assay to increase their permeability to ATP. The purpose of the experiments described in this paper was to examine whether higher estimates of adenylate cyclaseRead More