Role of deoxyribonucleic acid-ribonucleic acid hybrids in eukaryotes. Study of the template requirements of yeast ribonucleic acid polymerases and nature of the ribonucleic acid product.
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The technique of deoxyribonucleic acid-ribonucleic acid (RNA) hybridization was used to compare the RNA synthesized during vegetative growth and microcyst formation in Myxococcus xanthus. All classes of RNA, including ribosomal RNA, were synthesized during microcyst formation. The results indicate that the ribosomal RNA synthesized during microcyst formation was indistinguishable from that made during vegetative growth. Hybridization competition experiments demonstrated that certain messenger RNA species are synthesized only during vegetative growth, whereas others are synthesized only during microcyst formation. The synthesis of a new species of RNA polymerase does not appear to be responsible for differential transcription during morphogenesis in M. xanthus since the rifampicin sensitivity of transcription was conserved during microcyst formation.
The levels of macromolecules in Escherichia coli 15T(-) growing in broth, glucose, succinate, and acetate media were determined to compare relationships among deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and protein in cells at different growth rates. DNA and protein increased in relative amounts with decreasing growth rate; relative amounts of rRNA and tRNA decreased, tRNA making up a slightly larger proportion of RNA. For several amino acid-specific tRNAs studied, acceptor capacities per unit of DNA increased with increasing growth rate. The syntheses of tRNA and rRNA are regulated by similar, yet different, mechanisms. Chromatographic examination on columns of benzoylated diethylaminoethyl-cellulose of isoaccepting tRNAs for arginine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, serine, and valine did not reveal differences in the isoaccepting profiles for rapidly (broth culture) and slowly growing (acetate culture) cells. Therefore, isoacceptors for individual amino acids appear to be regulated as a group. Lower efficiencies of ribosomal function in protein synthesis can be explained, in part, by a low ratio of tRNA to the number of ribosomes available and by a decreasing concentration of tRNA with decreasing growth rate. Data on the tRNAs specific for seven amino acids indicate that the decreasing concentration of tRNA is a general event rather than a severe limitation of any one tRNA or isoaccepting tRNA.
A simple and efficient method for hybridization and subsequent recovery of non-fragmented ribosomal RNA from the hybrid is described. The procedure involves annealing of immobilized denatured DNA bound on cellulose nitrate membrane filters to complementary RNA in 50% (v/v) formamide-0.33m-potassium chloride-10mm-tris-hydrochloric acid buffer, pH7.4, at 33 degrees for 3hr. Under these conditions no detectable changes in the sedimentation coefficients of the input RNA were detected. The RNA can subsequently be recovered quantitatively from the hybrid in intact form by incubating the filters in formamide or in 85% (v/v) dimethyl sulphoxide. The applicability of the method for the evaluation of the absolute size of ribosomal RNA cistrons in Escherichia coli DNA and for the determination of the size of messenger RNA molecules is discussed.
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1. Rapidly labelled RNA from Escherichia coli K 12 was characterized by hybridization to denatured E. coli DNA on cellulose nitrate membrane filters. The experiments were designed to show that, if sufficient denatured DNA is offered in a single challenge, practically all the rapidly labelled RNA will hybridize. With the technique employed, 75-80% hybridization efficiency could be obtained as a maximum. Even if an excess of DNA sites were offered, this value could not be improved upon in any single challenge of rapidly labelled RNA with denatured E. coli DNA. 2. It was confirmed that the hybridization technique can separate the rapidly labelled RNA into two fractions. One of these (30% of the total) was efficiently hybridized with the low DNA/RNA ratio (10:1, w/w) used in tests. The other fraction (70% of the total) was hybridized to DNA at low efficiencies with the DNA/RNA ratio 10:1, and was hybridized progressively more effectively as the amount of denatured DNA was increased. A practical maximum of 80% hybridization of all the rapidly labelled RNA was first achieved at a DNA/RNA ratio 210:1 (+/-10:1). This fraction was fully representative of the rapidly labelled RNA with regard to kind and relative amount of materials hybridized. 3. In competition experiments, where additions were made of unlabelled RNA prepared from E. coli DNA, DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (EC 2.7.7.6) and nucleoside 5'-triphosphates, the rapidly labelled RNA fraction hybridized at a low (10:1) DNA/RNA ratio was shown to be competitive with a product from genes other than those responsible for ribosomal RNA synthesis and thus was presumably messenger RNA. At higher DNA/rapidly labelled RNA ratios (200:1), competition with added unlabelled E. coli ribosomal RNA (without messenger RNA contaminants) lowered the hybridization of the rapidly labelled RNA from its 80% maximum to 23%. This proportion of rapidly labelled RNA was not competitive with E. coli ribosomal RNA even when the latter was in large excess. The ribosomal RNA would also not compete with the 23% rapidly labelled RNA bound to DNA at low DNA/RNA ratios. It was thus demonstrated that the major part of E. coli rapidly labelled RNA (70%) is ribosomal RNA, presumably a precursor to the RNA in mature ribosomes. 4. These studies have shown that, when earlier workers used low DNA/RNA ratios (about 10:1) in the assay of messenger RNA in bacterial rapidly labelled RNA, a reasonable estimate of this fraction was achieved. Criticisms that individual messenger RNA species may be synthesized from single DNA sites in E. coli at rates that lead to low efficiencies of messenger RNA binding at low DNA/RNA ratios are refuted. In accordance with earlier results, estimations of the messenger RNA content of E. coli in both rapidly labelled and randomly labelled RNA show that this fraction is 1.8-1.9% of the total RNA. This shows that, if any messenger RNA of relatively long life exists in E. coli, it does not contribute a measurable weight to that of rapidly labelled messenger RNA.
An increase in the rate of synthesis of ara-specific messenger ribonucleic acid as measured by deoxyribonucleic acid-ribonucleic acid hybridization has been detected in the induced wild-type (ara(+)) strain of Escherichia coli B/r as compared with the uninduced control, thus providing evidence that regulation of the positively controlled l-arabinose operon is at the level of transcription.
Placenta from uncomplicated term pregnancies resulting in the birth of male infants weighing between 2900 and 3800 grams were analyzed for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), and protein content. The mothers of the infants all had pre-pregnancy weights within +/- 15 percent expected body weight for body frame, according to the Metropolitan Life Tables. There were no significant differences, as regards the content of DNA, RNA and protein, between the placental cotyledons. Nine placenta from mothers giving birth to growth retarded infants were analyzed along with the placenta from six mothers with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. A trend suggesting less DNA in the placenta of the severely growth retarded (symmetric) infants when compared with placenta from the normal pregnancies was not noted in the less severely growth retarded (asymmetric) infants. The placenta from the infants of diabetic pregnancies contained DNA and RNA in amounts similar to that found in normal pregnancy placenta but the protein content was greater.
The kinetics of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), and protein synthesis as well as protein breakdown during sporulation by Clostridium perfringens were determined. Maximum levels of DNA and net RNA synthesis occurred 3 and 2 h, respectively, after inoculation of sporulation medium. The rate of RNA synthesis decreased as sporulation progressed. Deoxyadenosine increased uptake of [14C]uracil and [14C]thymine but depressed the level of sporulation and the formation of heat-resistant spores when added at concentrations above 100 mug/ml. Unlike Bacillus species, net protein synthesis, which was sensitive to chloramphenicol inhibition, continued during sporulation. The rate of protein breakdown during vegetative growth was 1%/h. During sporulation this rate increased to 4.7%/h. When added to sporulation medium at 0 time chloramphenicol reduced protein breakdown to 1%/h. If added at 3 h the rate decreased to 2.1%/h. The role of proteases in this process is discussed.
The accumulation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), and protein was followed in cultures of Escherichia coli B/r during exponential growth in different media and for 2 h after a nutritional shift-up from succinate minimal medium (growth rate [mu1] = 0.67 doublings per h) to glucose plus amino acids medium (mu2 = 3.14 doublings per h). During postshift growth of the culture, the amounts of RNA (R), DNA (D), and protein (P) increased such that the ratios of the increments (delta R/delta P; delta D/delta P) were constants (k1, k2). This implies that the rates of accumulation of nuclei1:k2:1. These constants change from their preshift value to their final postshift value (i.e., k1 and k2) within a few minutes after the shift. k1 is a function of the activity of ribosomes, whereas k2 is related to the initiation of rounds of DNA replication. These parameters and the observed change in the doubling time of RNA (= mu2/mu1) were used to derive kinetic equations that describe the accumulation of DNA, RNA, protein, and cell mass during the 2- to 3-h transition period after a shift-up. The calculated kinetics agree closely with the observed kinetics.
The ribonucleic acid (RNA) specified by bacteriophage phi29 was analyzed to determine its composition at various times in the viral lytic cycle. Although viral-specific RNA was detected immediately after infection, a large increase in the rate was observed at 10 min when DNA synthesis began. phi29 was found to resemble other viruses in that gene expression occurred in two stages which could be defined temporally as "early" and "late." Early RNA appeared before the onset of viral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) replication and accounted for approximately 40% of the viral genetic potential. This RNA was also present late in the infectious cycle because of the slow turnover rate of phi29-specific RNA (approximately 10 min half-life) and the continued synthesis of much early viral RNA throughout infection. Late RNA was first detected at approximately the same time as viral DNA replication, although late transcription was not dependent upon DNA synthesis. This RNA was only partially displaced by early RNA in the appropriate competition experiments, suggesting that it contained sequences not present in the early class. Expression of viral genes was sensitive to rifamycin throughout the lytic cycle, the sensitivity resulting from a dependence upon the rifamycin phenotype of the host RNA polymerase.
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