Amino acid incorporation by ribosomes and polyribosomes from wheat chloroplasts

Sucrose-gradient and analytical ultracentrifugation showed that chloroplast polyribosomes from 4-day-old seedlings had mono-, di-, tri-, tetra- and traces of penta-ribosomes, in contrast with those from 7-day-old seedlings in which only the mono-, di- and traces of tri-ribosomes were present. Without Mg(2+) the polyribosomes dissociated into ribosomal subunits. The rate of l-[U-(14)C]phenylalanine incorporation was threefold greater for preparations from 4- than from 7-day-old seedlings. Incorporation by the latter was stimulated by polyuridylic acid. The rates of incorporation were similar whether the reaction mixture contained chloroplast or wheat-germ transfer RNA and amino acid synthetases purified on methylated albumin-on-kieselguhr and Sephadex G-75 columns respectively. The cofactor requirement was the same as for isolated intact chloroplasts. Osmotic rupture of chloroplasts with and without Triton X-100 revealed the presence of free and bound ribosomes. Free single ribosomes isolated by osmotic shrinkage or prepared by pancreatic ribonuclease digestion of chloroplast polyribosomes had negligible incorporation activity. This activity was increased by washing or by polyuridylic acid, but was still only a fraction of that given by polyribosomes. A comparison of incorporation activity of chloroplast polyribosomes with those from the surrounding cytoplasm showed the former to be 20 times more active.