Elevated levels of acceptor activity of hepatoma transfer ribonucleic acid

Neoplastic transformation-linked alterations in arginyl-tRNA synthetase activity

The behavior of the activity of arginyl-tRNA synthetase (L-arginine : tRNAArg Ligase(AMP-forming), EC 6.1.1.19) was determined in extracts of rat liver: normal adult, normal proliferating (from developing and from partially hepatectomized rats), and neoplastic (hepatomas of different growth rates) and in extracts of rat kidney cortex and transplantable kidney tumors. The Km values for arginine, ATP, and tRNA of the enzyme of the rapidly growing hepatoma 3924A were the same as those of the enzyme from the liver of control rats. The pH optima of the control and neoplastic livers were in the same range of 7.25-8.0. Taking the hepatic specific activity for arginyl-tRNA synthetase as 100%, deep layer of gut, thymus and testis had higher activity; renal cortex and spleen had the same activity; and skeletal muscle, brain, heart, lung, superficial layer of gut and adipose tissue had lower activity. In a wide spectrum of hepatomas of different growth rates, a significant increase of 1.4-2.4-fold in arginyl-tRNA synthetase activity was observed when compared with that of liver of control normal rats. This elevation in enzyme activity in hepatomas appears to be specific to neoplasia, since it is unaltered in regenerating and low in differentiating liver. The increase in arginyl-tRNA synthetase in the liver tumors appears to be transformation-linked, since the activity was increased in all hepatomas, even in the slowest growing ones. Furthermore, the increase in enzyme activity was not limited to hepatic neoplasms, since a rise was also observed in transplantable rat kidney tumors. Thus, the reprogramming of gene expression in neoplastic tissue entails an increase in arginine-tRNA synthetase activity.

Reversed phase chromatography of isoaccepting tRNA's from healthy and crown gall tissues from Nicotiana tabacum

RPC 5 (Reversed Phase Chromatography) of aminoacyl-tRNA's from healthy and crown gall (induced by Agrobacterium tume-faciens strain B6) tobacco tissues were compared for eleven amino acids. For ten amino acids: alanine, arginine, glutamic acid, glycine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, tyrosine, and valine, no qualitative or quantitative differences could be detected between aminoacyl-tRNA's from both sources. Phenylalanyl-tRNA's from crown gall tissues gave two peaks on RPC 5; the minor early eluting species (peak 1) was always absent in elution profiles of phenylalanyl-tRNA's from healthy tissues or from tobacco leaves. After the "Y" base was removed by pH 2.9 treatment, peak 2 of phenylalanine tRNA was shifted to the position of peak 1.