Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1985 Aug;82(16):5357–5359. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.16.5357

Radiation inactivation of ricin occurs with transfer of destructive energy across a disulfide bridge.

H T Haigler, D J Woodbury, E S Kempner
PMCID: PMC390567  PMID: 3860867

Abstract

The ionizing radiation sensitivity of ricin, a disulfide-linked heterodimeric protein, was studied as a model to determine the ability of disulfide bonds to transmit destructive energy. The radiation-dependent loss of A chain enzymatic activity after irradiation of either intact ricin or ricin in which the interchain disulfide bond was disrupted gave target sizes corresponding to the molecular size of dimeric ricin or monomeric A chain, respectively. These results clearly show that a disulfide bond can transmit destructive energy between protein subunits.

Full text

PDF
5359

Selected References

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

  1. ALEXANDER P., CHARLESBY A. Energy transfer in macromolecules exposed to ionizing radiations. Nature. 1954 Mar 27;173(4404):578–579. doi: 10.1038/173578a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. ARONSON D. L., PREISS J. W. Molecular weights of human prothrombin and thrombin by electron irradiation. Radiat Res. 1962 Feb;16:138–143. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Kempner E. S., Haigler H. T. The influence of low temperature on the radiation sensitivity of enzymes. J Biol Chem. 1982 Nov 25;257(22):13297–13299. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Kempner E. S., Miller J. H. Radiation inactivation of glutamate dehydrogenase hexamer: lack of energy transfer between subunits. Science. 1983 Nov 11;222(4624):586–589. doi: 10.1126/science.6635656. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kempner E. S., Schlegel W. Size determination of enzymes by radiation inactivation. Anal Biochem. 1979 Jan 1;92(1):2–10. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(79)90617-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lappi D. A., Kapmeyer W., Beglau J. M., Kaplan N. O. The disulfide bond connecting the chains of ricin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Mar;75(3):1096–1100. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.3.1096. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Pelham H. R., Jackson R. J. An efficient mRNA-dependent translation system from reticulocyte lysates. Eur J Biochem. 1976 Aug 1;67(1):247–256. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1976.tb10656.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES