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Science 1 December 1967:
Vol. 158. no. 3805, pp. 1186 - 1188
DOI: 10.1126/science.158.3805.1186
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Articles

Radioisotope Uptake as a Measure of Synthesis of Messenger RNA

Donald P. Nierlich 1

1 Department of Bacteriology and Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles 90024

Exogenously supplied radioactive uracil (or guanine) enters the intracellular pools of RNA precursors in Escherichia coli only as nucleotides are removed from these pools by net synthesis of RNA. Consequently uptake of uracil over a short period does not measure the sum of the synthesis of all forms of RNA, unstable and stable, as is often supposed. Uptake of uracil during changing conditions of growth may be influenced by changes in types of RNA's being made; under such conditions that no stable RNA is being made, the synthesis of unstable forms may be greatly underestimated.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)