Chromatographic fractionation of transfer RNA on the macroreticular polystyrene ion-exchange resin amberlyst A-21
✍ Scribed by L.A. Osterman
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1971
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 259 KB
- Volume
- 43
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0003-2697
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✦ Synopsis
Some new methods of subtle fractionation of tRNA have been developed in the last few years. The most successful and widespread of these are: the partition chromatography reversed-phase systems proposed by Kelmers and Weiss (l-5) and the chromatographic fractionation of tRNA on benzoylated DEAE-cellulose, introduced by Tener's group (6-9). In the latter case, additional forces of hydrophobic interaction between' the tRNA and the resin matrix are superposed on the main electrostatic interaction between tRNA and ionogenic groups of DEAE-cellulose.
The hydrophobic characteristics of tRNA depend on its conformation and the content of minor nucleotides with aliphatic groups (methyl, isopentenyl, etc.). The hydrophobic properties of the matrix in Tener's method are strongly increased by chemical benzoylation of the DEAEcellulose. Due to additional hydrophobic interactions, the separation of some isoacceptor tRNA's is achieved with rather good efficiency.
However, the benzoylation of DEAE-cellulose is an additional and not readily reproducible procedure. Synthetic ion-exchange resins with a polystyrene matrix are hydrophobic by their own nature. It was tempting to try a commercially available weak anion-exchange polystyrene resin in the same way as in Tener's procedure. As the porosity of the usual Dowex and Amberlite resins is too small for this goal, we turned to a new group of resins introduced in 1970 (Rohm and Haas)-"macroreticular Amberlyst resins." These highly porous polystyrene resins were developed for purification of organic solvents. The weak anion-exchange resin Amberlyst A-21 is one of this group and seemed the most suitable for our purposes. The first, but rather encouraging, results of chromatographic fractionation of yeast tRNA on this resin are presented here.