Nucleic Acid Metabolism and Zinc Deficiency in the Chick

Abstract

IT HAS been shown in simple plants and animals that zinc plays a role in nucleic acid and protein metabolism. Schneider and Price (1962) and Wacker (1962) working with Euglena gracilis showed a decrease in protein synthesis and ribosenucleic acid (RNA) content in organisms grown in zinc-deficient media concomitant with increases in nonprotein nitrogen and acid-soluble amino acids. These phenomena were interpreted to mean that the primary defect in zinc-deficient organisms was the failure of RNA synthesis and subsequently of protein synthesis.Winder and Denneny (1959) had previously suggested the same hypothesis as a result of their observations of decreased RNA, increased organic polyphosphate, and decreased growth rates in zinc- and iron-deficient Mycobacterium segmentis cultures.More recently, Williams et al. (1965) demonstrated a mean reduction of 44% in the amount of P32 appearing in the RNA nucleotides and a reduction of 43% in the amount of P32 appearing in the …