Coding properties of ultraviolet photoproducts of uracil: I. Binding studies and polypeptide synthesis

Abstract

Results of binding of aminoacyl tRNA to ribosomes in the presence of short well-defined nucleic acid sequences containing uracil photoproducts indicate that the uracil dimer can code as the sequences guanine-uracil and uracil-uracil, and the uracil hydrate can code as cytosine. These findings are confirmed in polypeptide synthesis in vitro in the presence of irradiated polyribonucleotides containing uracil. From the latter results it was calculated that the efficiency with which the hydrate codes as cytosine is about 100% in the first position of a codon but less than 20% in the second.