Attempted Enzymatic Phosphorylation of Ribonucleic Acid

Abstract

Incubation of calf liver ribonucleic acid (RNA) with adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and myokinase caused an uptake of P of about 14% of the P in and untreated control sample of RNA. When the expt. was repeated with calf pancreas RNA, increases of 17-48% of the control value were obtained. Incubation of RNA with inorganic phosphate or ATP alone did not materially increase the P content of the RNA samples. This work is discussed in connection with the possible role of RNA in protein synthesis.