Asparaginyl-tRNA and resistance of murine leukaemias to L-asparaginase

Effects of a diet deficient in tyrosine and queuine on germfree mice

A chemically-defined diet consisting of amino acids (including tyrosine), vitamins, trace elements, glucose, etc., known to support growth and reproduction through many generations when fed to germfree mice has been in use for many years in our laboratory. Classical nutritional studies showed that tyrosine was not a dietary requirement for higher mammals if an adequate amount of phenylalanine was present. Therefore, it was unexpected that when tyrosine was removed from this diet, the germfree mice developed ocular, neurological and other abnormalities which resulted in 100% fatalities usually within two weeks. Adding tyrosine back to the diet prevented the abnormalities from occurring. Conventional mice with a normal intestinal flora showed none of these symptoms when fed the same tyrosine-deficient diet. We added queuine to the tyrosine-deficient diet at a concentration of 0.1 microM. The germfree mice that were fed the diet supplemented with queuine were asymptomatic and remained alive until the termination of the experiments.

Amino acid content of L5178Y and L5178Y/L-ASE cells after L-asparaginase treatment

The amino acid contents of tumor cells that are either sensitive or resistant to treatment with L-asparaginase were measured. These amino acid concentrations were measured as a function of incubation time with L-asparaginase or as a function of the L-asparaginase dose. The cell types compared were the mouse leukemia lines L5178Y (sensitive to L-asparaginase treatment) and L5178Y/L-ASE (resistant to L-asparaginase treatment). Upon L-asparaginase treatment both cell lines lost most of their cellular asparagine but, whereas the resistant cells exhibited the ability to rebound to about 50% of initial values, the sensitive cells did not. While previous work had suggested that asparagine-dependent glycine synthesis was essential for sensitive cells (but not in resistant cells), we found no difference in the glycine content of either of the two cell lines as a function of either time or dose that would support this hypothesis. Major differences between the two cell lines were seen in the content of the essential amino acids before treatment with L-asparaginase. After incubation without L-asparaginase the contents of the two cell lines became similar. These results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms of L-asparaginase sensitivity and resistance.

Isolation and characterization of CHO cell mutants with altered asparagine synthetase

Two asparagine auxotrophic mutants (N3, N4) were isolated from the Gat- strain of Chinese hamster ovary cells, using a selection procedure modified from that of Goldfarb et al. (1). The defect in these mutants is due to a deficiency in asparagine synthetase activity. N3, in particular, had no measurable enzyme activity. Complementation analysis by PEG-mediated cell fusion showed that the auxotrophic phenotype behaved as a recessive trait; complementation was obtained between N3 or N4 and the pseudoauxotroph, Asn3, which has a temperature-sensitive asparagyl-tRNA synthetase activity. Revertants obtained by plating N3 or N4 in asparagine-free medium had about normal levels of asparagine synthetase activity and were produced with a probability of about 10(-6) per cell per generation. Three particular revertants of N3 and one revertant of N4 were shown to have asparagine synthetase activities that were different in thermolability from that of the wild type. This observation is consistent with the suggestion that N3 and N4 have defective structural genes rather than defective regulatory genes for asparagine synthetase.

Enhancement of the activity of asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase by an activator from rabbit liver

Asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase has been partially purified from acetone powders of rabbit liver. (NH-4)-2SO-4 fractionation was followed by chromatography of the enzyme on DEAE-cellulose. An activator separated from the enzyme. Further chromatography on Sephadex G-100 and G-200 showed that the latter consisted of two components. The smaller of these (mol wt is approximately equal to 35 000) possessed enzyme transfer activity but the larger one (mol wt 80 000-90 000) required the addition of activator before any enzyme transfer activity was demonstrable. The activator itself was devoid of transfer activity. After chromatography of crude extracts of asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase on Sepharose 4B the activity in the enzyme peak, which was of considerably larger molecular weight than any of the fractions found after purification could be enhanced by addition of the activator. None of the fractions of the enzyme or of activator catalysed any extensive asparagine-dependent ATP-PP-i exchange, either in the presence or the absence of added tRNA.

Uptake of transfer ribonucleic acid by normal and leukemic cells

Uptake of tRNA (Escherichia coli) was demonstrated in the murine leukemia, L1210 and in a human lymphoblast (NC-37) cell lines. In both cell lines, uptake of tRNA was rapid, reaching a maximum within 45 sec, and was linear with concentration up to about 50 mug/ml. This uptake of exogenous tRNA apparently was not due to altered membrane permeability or impaired cell viability, nor to ribonuclease degradation of the macromolecule. Furthermore, about 20% of the tRNA taken up by the cells remains functional and apparently intact. This was demonstrated by: (a) acylation with E. coli aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases; (b) methylation with leukemic cell tRNA-methylases, and (c) demonstrating (14)C-labeled 4S RNA in the cytoplasmic fraction of the leukemic cells after the addition of E. coli [(14)C]tRNA. The results demonstrate that tRNA can enter mammalian cells and suggest that an energy independent, carrier-mediated, mechanism may be operative.