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Biomedical subjects

M Goulian

Publications and source records attributed to M Goulian.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Covalent association of protein with replicative form DNA of parvovirus H-1.

The double-stranded replicative form (RF) DNA of the autonomous parvovirus H-1 can be isolated from infected cells in a covalent complex with protein. The protein is present on most or all of the RF DNA, including actively replicating molecules, and is associated with the 5'-terminal endonuclease Hae III fragments of both the viral and complementary strands of RF. The size of the protein is estimated to be 60,000-70,000 daltons from its effect on buoyant density of DNA. DNA with covalently bound protein has not been found in H-1 virions.

Centrifugation, Isopycnic

Deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells permeabilized with ether.

Cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae permeabilized by treatment with ether take up and incorporate exogenous deoxynucleoside triphosphate into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). With rho(+) strains, more than 95% of the product was mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This report characterizes ether-permeabilized yeast cells and describes studies on the mechanism of mtDNA synthesis with this system. The initial rate of in vitro mtDNA synthesis with one strain (X2180-1Brho(+)) was close to the rate of mtDNA replication in vivo. The extent of synthesis after 45 min was sufficient for the duplication of about 25% of the total mtDNA in the cells. The incorporated radioactivity resulting from in vitro DNA synthesis appeared in fragments that were an average of 30% mitochondrial genome size. Density-labeling experiments showed that continuous strands of at least 7 kilobases after denaturation, and up to 25 kilobase pairs before denaturation, were synthesized by this system. Pulse-chase experiments demonstrated that a large proportion of DNA product after short labeling times appeared in 0.25-kilobase fragments (after denaturation), which served as precursors of high-molecular-weight DNA. It is not yet clear whether the short pieces participate in a mechanism of discontinuous replication similar to that of bacterial and animal cell chromosomal DNA or whether they are related to the rapidly turning over, short initiation sequence of animal cell mtDNA. In rho(0) strains, which lack mtDNA, the initial rate of nuclear DNA synthesis in vitro was 1 to 2% of the average in vivo rate. With temperature-sensitive DNA replication mutants (cdc8), the synthesis of nuclear DNA was temperature sensitive in vitro as well, and in vitro DNA synthesis was blocked in an initiation mutant (cdc7) that was shifted to the restrictive temperature before the ether treatment.

DNA, Fungal

Optimal conditions for synthesis of long complementary DNA product with Moloney murine leukemia virus.

Studies are described on the interrelationships between divalent metals, dNTP's and PPi in determining the properties of complementary DNA (cDNA) product from the in vitro reverse transcriptase reaction with detergent-treated Moloney murine leukemia virus. In spite of the several-fold greater amount of cDNA product with Mn2+ than with Mg2+, net yield of high-molecular-weight cDNA was much greater with Mg2+ thant with Mn2+. This held true, as well, for the reactions containing excess dNTP or dNTP plus PPi, both of which (as has been reported for Mg2+) promote synthesis of high-molecular-weight cDNA product. Hif total dNTP concentration remained important for maximum high-molecular-weight product with Mg2+ and was not replaced by simply providing dNTP in excess over Mg2+. Under the conditions tested here, addition of PPi did not further increase cDNA product size with Mg2+ when compared with dNTP in excess over Mg2+. Extent of degradation of the RNA template during the incubations was correlated with the size of cDNA product.

Cell-Free System

Detection of sequences in human leukemic cell DNA homologous with moloney mouse leukemia viral RNA.

DNA complementary to Moloney murine leukemia viral RNA was annealed with DNA isolated from peripheral leukocytes of twelve patients with leukemia. Six to 10% of the complementary DNA annealed to the DNA of one patient with acute myelogenous leukemia. The level of annealing of the complementary DNA to the other leukemic DNA's did not differ significantly from that to normal human spleen DNA. This result is consistent with reports of occasional positive results from other laboratories, but the significance, especially in reference to a causal role for RNA tumor viruses in human leukemia, remains unclear.

DNA

Detection of reverse transcriptase activity in human cells.

Samples of three nonmalignant and seven leukemic human cells were examined for DNA polymerase activity that could be identified as RNA tumor virus reverse transcriptase. Experiments on virus-infected model animal cells provided the basis for cell fractionation procedures, and reconstituted systems of known virus, added to human cells, established a threshold of virus detection by enzyme assay at 1 to 10 particles/cell. DNA polymerase activity with some properties similar to a reverse transcriptase was detected in some of the human leukemic cells. However, parallel analyses of nonmalignant cells showed sufficient similarities to raise serious questions about the specificity of the criteria. Reverse transcriptase activity has been reported to be present in white blood cells from a proportion of cases of leukemia; however, it is concluded from the present study that the usual enzymatic criteria using synthetic template primers, which were used in most of the studies reported, are not sufficient to identify a DNA polymerase activity as viral reverse transcriptase.

Animals

Deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in permeabilized spheroplasts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Osmotically shocked spheroplasts from Saccharomyces cerevisiae incorporated deoxynucleoside triphosphates specifically into double-stranded nuclear and mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Results with this in vitro system for cells with and without mitochondrial DNA were compared. Strains lacking mitochondrial DNA were used to study nuclear DNA replication. With a temperature-sensitive mutant defective in DNA replication in vivo, DNA synthesis in vitro was temperature sensitive as well. The product of synthesis with all strains after very short labeling times consisted principally of short fragments that sedimented at approximately 4S in alkali; with longer pulse times or a chase with unlabeled nucleotides, they grew to a more heterogenous size, with an average of 6 to 8S and a maximum of 15S. There was little, if any, integration of these DNA fragments into the high-molecular-weight nuclear DNA. Analysis by CsCl density gradient centrifugation after incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine triphosphate showed that most of the product consisted of chains containing both preexisting and newly synthesized material, but there was also a small fraction (ca. 20%) in which the strands were fully synthesized in vitro. (32)P-label transfer ("nearest-neighbor") experiments demonstrated that at least a part of the material synthesized in vitro contained ribonucleic acid-DNA junctions. DNA pulse-labeled in vivo in a mutant capable of taking up thymidine 5'-monophosphate, sedimented in alkali at 4S, as in the case of the in vitro experiments.

Adenosine Triphosphate