Manfred Schartl, Thomas Holstein, Scott M. Robertson, Angelika Barnekow

• It has been suggested that the proto-oncogene c-src plays a functional role in developing neurons, and in the mature nerve cells of higher vertebrales. The coelenterate Hydra represents tbe most primitive known organism possessing nerve cells. With Southern blot hybridizations we have demonstrated src-related sequences in Hydra. Antisera specific for the c-src gene product (pp60 c-src) of birds and mammals precipitate a protein from Hydra cell extracts with a tyrosine-specific protein kinase activity. Studies of tissues and cells fractionatedIt has been suggested that the proto-oncogene c-src plays a functional role in developing neurons, and in the mature nerve cells of higher vertebrales. The coelenterate Hydra represents tbe most primitive known organism possessing nerve cells. With Southern blot hybridizations we have demonstrated src-related sequences in Hydra. Antisera specific for the c-src gene product (pp60 c-src) of birds and mammals precipitate a protein from Hydra cell extracts with a tyrosine-specific protein kinase activity. Studies of tissues and cells fractionated from a temperature sensitive mutant of Hydra which is depleted of interstitial (including nerve) cells at tbe non-permissive temperature, have indicated the src-like kinase of Hydra to be preferentially expressed in nerve cells. The high conservation of structural features and of the expression pattern indicates a basic function for pp60c-src in neurons.…