Ribonucleic acid alkaline hydrolysis

By hydrolysis under very mild alkaline conditions (with a boiling suspension of barium carbonate), ribonucleic acids have been shown to yield small quantities of cyclic phosphates as well as the normal nucleotides.96 These materials were identical electrophoretically with synthetic cyclic phosphates and were readily hydrolyzed to mixtures of 2- and 3-phosphates. Their formation in this way constitutes strong support for Brown and Todd s theory. The precise way in which the alkaline hydrolysis of the polynucleotide occurs has been studied using isotopically labeled water, and the results are in agreement202 with the scheme outlined above. 

Oligonucleotides have also been separated by ion-exchange chromatography of yeast ribonucleic acid treated either with acid216 or with ribonuclease.209 Alkaline hydrolysis of the fission products obtained with the latter gives rise to pyrimidine nucleoside 3-phosphates and mixtures of purine nucleoside 2- and 3-phosphates. Bone phosphomonoesterase196 followed by alkaline hydrolysis gives pyrimidine nucleosides and purine... 

The discovery of a small proportion of a nucleoside containing thymine42 in the ribonucleic acid of two strains of Escherichia coli, in Aerobacter aero-genes, and in commercial, yeast-ribonucleic acid emphasizes the point made previously,26-28 namely, that the nucleic acids may contain constituents other than those heretofore identified. Alkaline hydrolysis of the ribonucleic acid from E. coli gave nucleotides42 (probably the 2- and 3-phosphate esters) which were converted to the nucleoside with prostatic phospho-monoesterase.62 Enzymic hydrolysis of the nucleic acid preparation also led to the nucleoside, which was degraded further to thymine by hydrolysis with perchloric acid.42 There can be little doubt that this carbohydrate derivative of thymine is intimately bound as part of the polynucleotide chain of this particular ribonucleic acid. 

Two major metabolites were isolated by paper chromatography (from trichloroacetic acid extracts of the cells) and were identified as 8-azaguano-sine 5-phosphate and 8-azaguanosine, respectively. The two compounds were present in the ratio of 4 1. The structure of the 8-azaguanosine 5-phosphate was indicated by chromatographic and electrophoretic comparison of it with (a) the 5-nucleotide prepared by the action of snake venom on the bacterial ribonucleic acid containing 8-azaguanine, and (b) the 3-nucleotide prepared by alkaline hydrolysis. 

In ribonucleic acids, the fact that the 2 - and 3 -OH groups are on the same side of the ring makes alkaline hydrolysis of such dinucleotides exceptionally rapid by intramolecular nucleophilic catalysis. 

M7. Markham, R., and Smith, J. D., The structure of ribonucleic acids. I. Cyclic nucleotides produced by ribonuclease and by alkaline hydrolysis. Biochem. J. 62, 552-557 (1952). 

It is now known that mild, alkaline hydrolysis of ribonucleic acids yields mixtures of the 2 - and 3 -phosphates of ribonucleosides, although it had earlier been believed that only the 3 -phosphate derivatives are produced. For example, it was reported that guanylic acid (6), obtained from ribonucleic acid hydrolysates, is deaminated with nitrous acid to xanthylic acid (7), which was hydrolyzed at pH 1.9 to a ribose phosphate... 

Oxidation of (8) yielded a ribonic acid phosphate (9), whose properties differed from those of the ribonic acid 5-phosphate obtained by similar hydrolysis and oxidation of inosine 5 -phosphate. Moreover, reduction of (8) allegedly gave a ribitol phosphate (10) which was optically inactive. From these studies, it followed that the phosphoric moiety in (10) is esterified by the 3-hydroxyl group of the ribitol moiety. Similarly, a yeast adenylic acid, obtained from an alkaline hydrolysate of yeast ribonucleic acid, was deaminated to an inosinic acid that was different... 

Adenylic acids o and b were each converted by trifluoroacetic anhydride into the same 2 3 -cyclic phosphate (13, R = adenin-9-yl) by Brown, Magrath, and Todd. These authors also applied this method to the synthesis of 2 3 -cyclic phosphates (13) of cytidine, uridine, and guanosine. Hydrolysis of these cyclic phosphates gave the corresponding a and b nucleotide mixtures. Markham and Smith found that, during hydrolysis of ribonucleic acid with pancreatic ribonuclease, the 2 3 -cyclic phosphates of the pyrimidine nucleosides are formed as intermediates leading to the ribonucleoside phosphates b. The also showed that 2 3 -cyclic phosphates (13) are formed by very mild, alkaline hydrolysis of ribonucleic acid. The discoveries of these a and b isomers of mononucleotides from... 

The possibility that, during the alkaline hydrolysis of ribonucleic acid, tri-esters (18) - could be intermediates was ruled out on mechanistic groxmds."f > Furthermore, it was shown that the tri-ester, uridine 2 3 -(methyl phosphate) (18, R = CH3), synthesized by methylation of uridine 2 3 -cychc phosphate with diazomethane, is resistant to ribo-nuclease. f However, it has been observed that, when the benzyl ester of cytidylic acid 6 is partially hydrolyzed in acid, a significant proportion of the o isomer of this phosphoric diester is formed." ) In addition, the dinucleoside phosphates, such as adenylyl-(3 —>5 )-cytidine (14a), are also isomerized to the corresponding (2 - 5 )-dinucleoside phosphates by treatment with acid. " These studies suggest that cyclic triesters (or derivatives thereof) may be intermediates in isomerization of these phospho-diesters in acidic mediiun. 

Many unusual nucleotides have been found as minor components of nucleic acids, especially in the soluble or transfer ribonucleic acids. Most of these minor components contain methylated aglycons in their structure. A review of these nucleotides has been presented by Dekker, and general techniques for their isolation as nucleosides have been reported by Hall. In addition, 5,6-dihydrouridylic acid (34) has been isolated by enzymic hydrolysis of certain transfer ribonucleic acids from yeast, and 4-thiouridylic acid (35) was obtained from the alkaline hydrolyzate of transfer ribonucleic acid from Escherichia coli. A nucleotide whose ultraviolet absorption spectrum was very similar to that of 2-thiouridine has been reported to be present in transfer ribonucleic acid. Although the a anomer (36) of cytidylic acid has been detected (and identified) in a yeast ribonucleic acid hydrolyzate, it is not certain whether this -cytidylic acid is a minor component of ribonucleic acid or an artifact produced during the alkaline hydrolysis. Among the minor nucleotide components of transfer ribonucleic acid, pseudouridylic acid (37)89-98 jg unique, in that the D-ribosyl moiety is linked to the aglycon... 

These cyclic phosphates are intermediates in the enzymic and alkaline degradation of ribonucleic acids, and may be the activated intermediates for the enzymic synthesis of ribonucleic acids from the nucleotides 175), Enzymes specific for the hydrolysis of nucleoside 2,3-cyclic phosphates to the monoesters have been prepared from snake venom, spleen, and intestinal mucosa. (See Chapter VIII.)... 

Ribonucleic Acid. A major contribution to the formulation of RNA structure was the demonstration that alkaline hydrolysis of RNA quantitatively liberates about equal amounts of mononucleotide isomers of all four bases 103). Although it was readily established that none of these mononucleotides is the 5 -phosphate isomer, it was not until some years later that Cohn and associates 103) by controlled degradation experiments, and Brown and associates 121) by the synthetic route, established that the products were isomers involving phosphate attachment at positions 2 and 3 of the ribose. Of equal significance was the discovery 161) that hydrolysis of RNA by the enzyme phosphodiesterase (snake venom or intestinal) liberates mononucleotides exclusively of still another type, the 5 -mono-nucleotides. It was thus necessary to establish the mechanisms which could account for one phosphodiester structure in the RNA chain giving rise to three isomers of each mononucleotide. 

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