Nucleotides of Hevea brasiliensis Latex. A ribonucleoprotein component

Abstract

The isolation and characterization of a purified ribonucleoprotein component of Hevea rubber latex is described. A method of final purification employing a cationic detergent has been developed, which gives a product of approximately 70% nucleic acid content. The composition of the polynucleotide portion of the purified product is similar to that of several other plant nucleic acids so far reported in cytoplasm. The mol. wt. of the product is approximately 40,000; the protein part of the molecule has a maximum mol. wt. The ratio of the number of amino acid residues to the number of nucleotide residues in the purified nucleoprotein is discussed.