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. 1978 Jan;61(1):1–6. doi: 10.1104/pp.61.1.1

No Effect of 5-Fluorouracil on the Properties of Purified α-Amylase from Barley Half-seeds 1

Shirley J Rodaway 1,2, Hans Kende 1
PMCID: PMC1091784  PMID: 16660217

Abstract

α-Amylase has been purified from de-embryonated seeds of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Betzes) which have been incubated on 10−6 m gibberellic acid (GA3) following 3 days of imbibition in buffer. Incubation of the half-seeds in up to 10−2 m 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) during the entire incubation period, including imbibition, had no effect on any of the following characteristics of purified α-amylase: thermal stability in the absence of calcium, molecular weight of the enzyme, isozyme composition, specific activity, or the amount of α-amylase synthesized by the aleurone tissue. The synthesis of rRNA and tRNA was strongly inhibited by 5-FU, indicating that the analog had entered the aleurone cells. These results are not in agreement with those of Carlson (Nature New Biology 237: 39-41 [1972]) who found that treatment of barley aleurone with 10−4 m 5-FU prior to the addition of GA3 resulted in decreased thermal stability of GA3-induced α-amylase and who interpreted this as evidence that the mRNA for α-amylase was synthesized during the imbibition of the aleurone tissue and independently of gibberellin action. Results of the present experiments indicate that the thermal stability of highly purified α-amylase is not altered by treatment of barley half-seeds with 5-FU, and that 5-FU cannot be used as a probe to examine the timing of α-amylase mRNA synthesis.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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