Amino acid metabolism in mammalian cell cultures

USE OF GLUTAMIC ACID-U-C14TO DETERMINE NUTRITIONALLY ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS FOR LARVAE OF THE BLOW FLY, PHORMIA REGINA

The production of C14O2by third-instar larvae of the blow fly, Phormia regina Meig., after it was injected with glutamic acid-U-C14, indicates that this substrate was metabolized under these conditions. However, the nutritionally essential amino acids lysine, phenylalanine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, and threonine, isolated from the injected larvae, contained little radioactivity. A low level of radioactivity in arginine, histidine, and methionine suggests that they were slowly synthesized. The nutritionally non-essential amino acids alanine, serine, aspartic acid, and proline contained large quantities of radioactivity; tyrosine and glycine were exceptions. These results, in agreement with earlier work that used glucose-U-C14, show that radioactivity data are useful for determining certain of the nutritionally essential amino acids.