Skip to main content
PMC home page
Biochemical Journal logoLink to Biochemical Journal
. 1969 Oct;114(4):743–751. doi: 10.1042/bj1140743

A study of the effects of reaction with formaldehyde on some optical and physical properties of reticulocyte ribosomes

R A Cox 1
PMCID: PMC1184961  PMID: 5343777

Abstract

1. The optical rotatory dispersion and ultraviolet-absorption spectrum of ribosomal RNA in situ appear to be unchanged when the ribosome is dissociated into its RNA and protein moieties. 2. Reaction with 0·05% formaldehyde at 20° for 2hr. `fixes' ribosomes so that they remain intact in 1% sodium dodecyl sulphate. 3. The RNA moiety of the ribosome undergoes a conformational change when ribosomes in 8% formaldehyde are heated at 70° for 10min. and cooled to 20°. After this treatment no double-helical character can be detected, but neither the sedimentation coefficient nor the morphology of the ribosome determined by electron microscopy is altered. 4. It is concluded that the RNA moiety of reticulocyte ribosomes is freely accessible to formaldehyde.

Full text

PDF
746

Images in this article

748-1PLATE 1
on p.748-1
748-2PLATE 2
on p.748-2

Selected References

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

  1. Arnstein H. R., Cox R. A., Gould H., Potter H. A comparison of methods for the isolation and fractionation of reticulocyte ribosomes. Biochem J. 1965 Aug;96(2):500–506. doi: 10.1042/bj0960500. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BAYLEY S. T. PHYSICAL STUDIES ON RIBOSOMES FROM PEA SEEDLINGS. J Mol Biol. 1964 Feb;8:231–238. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(64)80132-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Blake A., Peacocke A. R. Optical rotatory dispersion and secondary structure of ribonucleic acid in mammalian ribosomes. Nature. 1965 Dec 25;208(5017):1319–1320. doi: 10.1038/2081319a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bush C. A., Scheraga H. A. Optical rotatory dispersion and RNA base pairing in ribosomes and in tobacco mosaic virus. Biochemistry. 1967 Oct;6(10):3036–3042. doi: 10.1021/bi00862a010. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cotter R. I., McPhie P., Gratzer W. B. Internal organization of the ribosome. Nature. 1967 Dec 2;216(5118):864–868. doi: 10.1038/216864a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cox R. A., Kanagalingam K. A spectrophotometric study of the denaturation of deoxyribonucleic acid in the presence of urea or formaldehyde and its relevance to the secondary structure of single-stranded polynucleotides. Biochem J. 1968 Jul;108(4):599–610. doi: 10.1042/bj1080599. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. EDELMAN I. S., TS'O P. O., VINOGRAD J. The binding of magnesium to microsomal nucleoprotein and ribonucleic acid. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1960 Oct 7;43:393–403. doi: 10.1016/0006-3002(60)90464-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Furano A. V., Bradley D. F., Childers L. G. The conformation of the ribonucleic acid in ribosomes. Dye stacking studies. Biochemistry. 1966 Sep;5(9):3044–3056. doi: 10.1021/bi00873a038. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Gould H. J., Arnstein H. R., Cox R. A. The dissociation of reticulocyte polysomes into subunits and the location of messenger RNA. J Mol Biol. 1966 Feb;15(2):600–618. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(66)80130-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. LOWRY O. H., ROSEBROUGH N. J., FARR A. L., RANDALL R. J. Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem. 1951 Nov;193(1):265–275. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. MATHIAS A. P., WILLIAMSON R., HUXLEY H. E., PAGE S. OCCURRENCE AND FUNCTION OF POLYSOMES IN RABBIT RETICULOCYTES. J Mol Biol. 1964 Jul;9:154–167. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(64)80097-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. McPhie P., Gratzer W. B. The optical rotatory dispersion of ribosomes and their constituents. Biochemistry. 1966 Apr;5(4):1310–1315. doi: 10.1021/bi00868a026. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Miall S. H., Walker I. O. Structural studies on ribosomes. I. The binding of proflavine to Escherichia coli ribosomes. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1967 Aug 22;145(1):82–95. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. QUIOCHO F. A., RICHARDS F. M. INTERMOLECULAR CROSS LINKING OF A PROTEIN IN THE CRYSTALLINE STATE: CARBOXYPEPTIDASE-A. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1964 Sep;52:833–839. doi: 10.1073/pnas.52.3.833. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sarkar P. K., Yang J. T., Doty P. Optical rotatory dispersion of E. coli ribosomes and their constituents. Biopolymers. 1967 Jan;5(1):1–4. doi: 10.1002/bip.1967.360050102. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Schweet R., Lamfrom H., Allen E. THE SYNTHESIS OF HEMOGLOBIN IN A CELL-FREE SYSTEM. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1958 Oct 15;44(10):1029–1035. doi: 10.1073/pnas.44.10.1029. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sheard B., Miall S. H., Peacocke A. R., Walker I. O., Richards R. E. Proton magnetic relaxation studies of the binding of manganese ions to Escherichia coli ribosomes. J Mol Biol. 1967 Sep 28;28(3):389–402. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(67)80088-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Spirin A. S., Belitsina N. V., Lerman M. I. Use of formaldehyde fixation for studies of ribonucleoprotein particles by caesium chloride density-gradient centrifugation. J Mol Biol. 1965 Dec;14(2):611–615. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(65)80213-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Biochemical Journal are provided here courtesy of The Biochemical Society

RESOURCES