Repressed template activity of chromatin of pea [Pisum sativum] roots treated by aluminium

To determine the mechanism of aluminium toxicity in the pea root, we investigated both the in vivo and in vitro effects of aluminium on chromatin. The ratio of histone or non-histone proteins to DNA in chromatin was slightly increased by aluminium treatment. However, chromatin with an rf of 0.086 (r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant and cell physiology 1980-09, Vol.21 (6), p.951-959
Main Authors: Matsumoto, H, Morimura, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminium
Chromatin
Pea root
Toxicity
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Summary:To determine the mechanism of aluminium toxicity in the pea root, we investigated both the in vivo and in vitro effects of aluminium on chromatin. The ratio of histone or non-histone proteins to DNA in chromatin was slightly increased by aluminium treatment. However, chromatin with an rf of 0.086 (rf: molar ratio of bound aluminium to DNA-phosphate) prepared from aluminium treated roots had template activity for RNA synthesis that was half of the control. The template activity of the chromatin treated with aluminium in vitro decreases with increasing rf values. In vitro treatment of chromatin with aluminium altered the spectrophotometric properties of chromatin, including the shift up in the absorption of the region beyond 320 nm and the decrease in the ratio of maximum to minimum absorption, with increasing concentrations of treated aluminium. The dialysis of DNA or histone against an aluminium solution indicates that scarcely any binding of aluminium to histone occurred, but the binding of aluminium to DNA took place rapidly.
ISSN:0032-0781
1471-9053
1471-9053
DOI:10.1093/oxfordjournals.pcp.a076083