The incorporation of amino acids into ribonucleic acid

Abstract

The incorporation of radioactive leucine, valine, and glycine into the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of a soluble enzyme fraction of rat liver has recently been reported by Hoagland et al.(1) Ogata and Nohara(2) have studied the incorporation of alanine into RNA. The former authors consider this incorporation to be an intermediate stage in the transfer of labeled amino acids into microsomal protein. This paper describes the fractionation of the crude system for amino acid incorporation into RNA into an activating enzyme fraction and RNA. Both these components are required for incorporation, thus providing a biological assay for functional RNA. Evidence is presented that a specific activating enzyme and a specific RNA are involved in the incorporation of each amino acid.