Experimental Design of Turnover Measurement Studies in the Unsteady State: Biosynthesis of Macromolecules

Abstract

Two questions that are often raised in connection with the biosynthesis of macromolecules, such as proteins, are:

• 1. When amino acid incorporation is measured in the absence of net synthesis, is this really measuring activity along a potential synthetic pathway, or an exchange such as might be produced by the action of a reversible hydrolytic enzyme?

• 2. Does biosynthesis of, e.g., proteins involve a template mechanism in which the entire molecule is assembled at a single site, or does it proceed by the stepwise building of ever larger intermediates?

Presented at the Fourth Symposium on Advances in Tracer Methodology, 1960.