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Updated: Aug 25, 2026

Isolation of Translating Ribosomes Containing Peptidyl-tRNAs for Functional and Structural Analyses
Published on: February 25, 2011
Enzymatic activity of toxic and non-toxic type 2 ribosome-inactivating proteins
Luigi Barbieri1, Marialibera Ciani, Tomás Girbés
1Dipartimento di Patologia Sperimentale, Università di Bologna, I-40126 Bologna, Italy.
Abstract:
Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) display adenine polynucleotide glycosylase activity on different nucleic acid substrates, which at the ribosomal level is responsible for the arrest of protein synthesis. Some type 2 RIPs, namely ricin and related proteins, are extremely toxic to mammalian cells and animals whilst other type 2 RIPs (non-toxic type 2 RIPs) display three to four logs less toxicity. We studied whether a correlation exists between toxicity on cells and enzymatic activity on nucleic acids. All type 2 RIPs differ in their depurinating activity on the different substrates with differences of up to one to two logs. The toxicity of type 2 RIPs is independent of their enzymatic activity on nucleic acids or on ribosomes.
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