Isolation and Partial Characterization of Transfer RNAs from Astragalus bisulcatus

Abstract

A procedure was developed for the isolation of transfer RNA from the selenium accumulator plant A. bisulcatus. This material appears free of interfering phenolic compounds, has a high guanosine to cytidine ratio, shows a major and modified nucleoside composition characteristic of plant transfer RNA, and exhibits chromatographic and electrophoretic properties similar to transfer RNA from other well studied bacterial and plant systems. RNA isolated from A. bisulcatus seedlings incubated in the presence of 75Se indicate some incorporation of radioactivity into the transfer RNA, but at extremely low levels. The transfer RNA were active in accepting amino acids, although their over-all levels of activity appeared low when compared with those from a homologous Escherichia coli aminoacylation reaction system.