The Synthesis of Proteins-A Simple Experiment To Show the Procedures and Problems of Using Radioisotopes in Biochemical Studies

Abstract

The distinction between organic chemistry and biochemistry is very unclear; most people regard the former as merging into the latter. For this reason, and for reasons of student interest and future employment, very many organic chemistry courses contain studies on biochemical processes including metabolic pathways, the associated reaction mechanisms, and relevant techniques.One of the main aims of the simple experiment described here is to illustrate the crucially important point that radioisotopes can be used to follow metabolic pathways and gain vital information on their nature and operation. The synthesis of protein is one of the most fundamental and interesting of biological processes and obviously it is desirable to be able to demonstrate it, and, if possible, to examine some of the factors affecting it. However, while experiments can be devised involving isolated ribosomes, mRNA, and so on, the lability of these materials and the time required for their preparation are awkward. The cost of some essential chemical components for such experiments can also be off-putting.

Determination of the Enantiomeric Purity of Commercial L-[U-14C] Valine: An Experiment Utilizing Reversed-Phase Thin-Layer Chromatography and Liquid Scintillation Counting

“…High and low values for the % L-Val were 98.9 and 96.3, respectively, with a mean value of 98.0 ± 0.2% reported as the mean and standard deviation of the mean for 17 pairs of students. 9 The corresponding high and low values for the % D-Val were 3.7 and 1.2, with a mean value of 2.0 ± 0.2%. The manufacturer reported a 98% radiochemical purity using HPLC as an analytical method.…”

“…The work area should be monitored for contamination before leaving the laboratory. A complete list of precautions has recently appeared in this Journal (9). A useful text on radiotracer methods is reference 17.…”