A critical study of amino acid incorporation into protein by isolated liver mitochondria from adult rats

1. Mitochondria were isolated from rat liver in a way that kept bacterial contamination at a minimum. 2. The activity of oxidative phosphorylation was unchanged under these conditions, whereas the ability of the preparations to incorporate amino acids into protein was insignificant, though it could be enhanced somewhat by the presence of EDTA. This enhancement was sensitive to ribonuclease. 3. The active time of incorporation did not exceed 15min. at 30 degrees . 4. Microsomal contamination, as measured by glucose 6-phosphatase activity, was about 5%. 5. The ability of isolated bacteria to incorporate amino acids into protein was greatly enhanced by the addition of mitochondria or heat-inactivated mitochondria. 6. A correlation was found between the growth rate of bacteria and the amino acid-incorporating activity. 7. Amino acid incorporation by combined mitochondrial-bacterial systems was inhibited by 2,4-dinitrophenol. 8. The results confirm and extend the earlier findings made in our Laboratory that isolated liver mitochondria, when free from contaminating bacteria and obtained from adult rats, are not able to catalyse the incorporation of amino acids into protein at a measurable rate. 9. The results are discussed with special emphasis on the validity of these findings.     

The incorporation of amino acids into the protein of isolated soya bean mitochondria

Summary A system involving the incorporation of amino acids into the protein of mitochondria isolated aseptically from soya bean hypocotyls has been partially characterized. Incorporation is optimal at pH 7.4, is dependent on magnesium, phosphate and succinate, is resistant to pancreatic RNAase and cycloheximide, but is sensitive to D-threo-chloramphenicol, oligomycin, DNP, and changes in osmotic concentration.     

Energy requirement for the incorporation of amino acids into protein of isolated mouse-liver mitochondria

Mitochondria isolated from mouse liver can incorporate amino acids into mitochondrial protein. Studies with oligomycin and antihistamine drugs indicate that this incorporation may not be an ATP requiring process.     

Unnatural amino acid incorporation into virus-like particles

Virus-like particles composed of hepatitis B virus (HBV) or bacteriophage Qbeta capsid proteins have been labeled with azide- or alkyne-containing unnatural amino acids by expression in a methionine auxotrophic strain of E. coli. The substitution does not affect the ability of the particles to self-assemble into icosahedral structures indistinguishable from native forms. The azide and alkyne groups were addressed by Cu(I)-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition: HBV particles were decomposed by the formation of more than 120 triazole linkages per capsid in a location-dependent manner, whereas Qbeta suffered no such instability. The marriage of these well-known techniques of sense-codon reassignment and bioorthogonal chemical coupling provides the capability to construct polyvalent particles displaying a wide variety of functional groups with near-perfect control of spacing.     

Kinetics of amino acid incorporation into serum proteins

1. The effect of varying body temperature on the rate of amino acid incorporation into serum protein does not give support to the idea that the rate of this process is adjusted in vivo to restore those protein molecules destroyed by thermal denaturation. The experimentally observed Q₁₀ was about 3.9. 2. When amino acids are injected into the blood of animals in a steady state of serum protein turnover, a period of time elapses before these amino acids can be found in the serum proteins. This has been called transit time. At a given temperature (31°) it is the same in rabbits, turtles, and Limulus (1 hour). In rabbits and turtles it has a Q₁₀ of 3.2. It appears to be specifically related to the process of synthesis (or release) of serum proteins. 3. It was not possible to affect the transit time or the incorporation rate by the administration of amino acid analogues.