Isolation and Partial Characterization of Transfer RNAs from Astragalus bisulcatus

A procedure has been developed for the isolation of transfer RNA from the selenium accumulator plant Astragalus bisulcatus. This material appears free of interfering phenolic compounds, has a high guanosine to cytidine ratio, shows a major and modified nucleoside composition characteristic of plant transfer RNAs, and exhibits chromatographic and electrophoretic properties similar to transfer RNAs from other well studied bacterial and plant systems. RNAs isolated from A. bisulcatus seedlings incubated in the presence of (75)Se indicate some incorporation of radioactivity into the transfer RNAs, but at extremely low levels. The transfer RNAs were active in accepting amino acids, although their over-all levels of activity appeared low when compared with those from a homologous Escherichia coli aminoacylation reaction system.