Phosphorus incorporation in Escherichia coli ribonucleic acid after infection with bacteriophage T2

The Turnover of Ribonucleic Acids Their Degradation by Characteristic Enzymic Pathways in Escherichia Coli

“…The first observation on the selective degradation of the RNA molecule was made by Volkin and Astrachan (1956). They demonstrated that a rapid turnover of RNAphosphorus takes place in T2-bacteriophage infected E. coil cells.…”

“…They demonstrated that a rapid turnover of RNAphosphorus takes place in T2-bacteriophage infected E. coil cells. Since then, the metabolic and chemical characteristics of this type of RNA have been extensively studied by many workers (Volkin and Astrachan, 1956;Nomura, Hall and Spiegelman, 1960;Brenner, Jacob and Meselson, 1961;Gros, et al, 1961;Hall and Spiegelman, 1961). As a result, the significance of this type of RNA, which has been designated as mRNA (Jacob and Monod, 1961) in the translation of genetic messages is now well recognized.…”

An Introduction to Transcription and Gene Regulation

“…Using CsCl density gradient equilibrium sedimentation, Ben Hall and Sol Spiegelman applied the same test to RNA 32 P-labeled after phage T2 infection of Escherichia coli: this RNA was able to reassociate with denatured T2 DNA but not with native T2 DNA or with denatured phage T5 or E. coli DNA (26). The experiment established that the synthesis, in phage T2-infected bacteria, of RNA with a nucleotide composition corresponding to that of the infecting phage DNA (27) extended to complementarity of nucleotide sequence. We applied the same test to RNA that was synthesized by the bacterial (Micrococcus luteus) RNA polymerase in the presence of phage T2 DNA and found the parallel result: the in vitro synthesized RNA was able to associate with denatured T2 DNA (but not heterologous DNA of nearly equal GC content) and only under conditions allowing reassociation of complementary nucleic acid strands.…”

Bacterial Ribosomes and Protein Synthesis

“…This ' messenger-RNA ' or ' tape-RNA ' (Bonner, 1961) is said to be made in association with DNA and to have a related composition; to be heterogeneous in molecular weight (this is necessary since it is to 'code' for proteins of different sizes) but averaging not less than 500,000; to associate with ribosomes in order to ' programme ' them; and to have a turnover rate such that each 'messenger-RNA' is used only once or a few times (Jacob & Monod, 1961). Much of the experimental evidence on which this theory is based comes from investigations of organisms infected with bacteriophage (Volkin & Astrachan, 1956;Volkin, 1960;Brenner et al 1961;Spiegelman, Hall & Storck, 1961). Infection may halt the synthesis of the many proteins previously made by the host, initiate synthesis of 20-30 new proteins concerned in phage production, and lead to the synthesis and turnover of an RNA fraction with properties like those mentioned above.…”