1.
Science
; 213(4515): 1517-9, 1981 Sep 25.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-7280672
ABSTRACT
The erythrocytes of the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), an egg-laying mammal, were examined for the presence of phosphorylated compounds. The erythrocytes contained only 0.03 +/- 0.01 micromoles of adenosine 5'-triphosphate per milliliter of cells. This amount is two orders of magnitude less than that in human cells. Although the echidna erythrocytes had an abundance of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate and other glycolytic intermediates, no other energy-rich pyridine and purine compounds were detected.