ADP-ribosylation of proteins associated with heterogeneous nuclear RNA in rat liver nuclei.

Purified rat liver nuclei were incubated in vitro in the presence of [adenylate-32P]nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. The label was rapidly incorporated into trichloroacetic acid-insoluble material and also detected in particles carrying heterogeneous nuclear RNA. The particles were isolated by density gradient centrifugation, and their size determined to be 30-40 S from parallel experiments using nuclei labelled with [3H]uridine 5'-triphosphate under similar conditions. Treatment of the 30-40 S-particles with enzymes of different specificities showed that the label was tightly bound to proteins, not incorporated into nuclei acids and not utilized in phosphorylation of proteins. The label was detached by phosphodiesterase I from snake venom and identified as ADP-ribose and adenosine 5'-phosphate present at a ratio of 7.5 to 1 using thin layer chromatography on poly(ethyleneimine)-cellulose. Radioactively labelled (ADP-ribosylated) proteins were visualized by autoradiography following SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. They included several major species of the ribonucleoprotein with molecular weights of 36000, 39000 and 42000, and a limited number of high molecular weight polypeptides.