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Effects of Mammalian Insulin on Metabolism, Growth, and Morphology of a Wall-Less Strain of Neurospora crassa^*

MAUREEN A. McKENZIE, STEPHEN E. FAWELL, MIN CHA and JOHN LENARD

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-5635

Address requests for reprints to: Dr. John Lenard, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854.

Abstract

Addition of mammalian insulin to a nutritionally rich, chemically defined culture medium affects Neurospora crassa "slime" (wall-less) cells, as indicated by enhancement of growth, extension of viability at the stationary phase of growth, alteration of morphology, and stimulation of glucose oxidation. Bovine, porcine, and recombinant human insulin had similar effects on growth and morphology, while proinsulin, reduced insulin, and several other proteins were inactive. Insulin added in the presence of excess antiinsulin antibody was without activity. Intact cells possessed high affinity insulin-binding sites, represented by a curvilinear Scatchard plot, suggesting that effects are mediated through insulin receptors on the cell surface. These findings establish a role for insulin or insulin-like molecules in regulating growth and metabolism in this fungal cell and demonstrate a close similarity to insulin effects on certain mammalian cells. (Endocrinology 122: 511–517,1988)

Footnotes

^* This work was supported in part by NIH Grants AI-13002 and GM-34050.

Present address: National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disease, Building 10, Room 8S-23, National Institutes of Health FSBD, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.

Received January 30, 1987.