Premium
NEAR‐UV‐INDUCED BREAKS IN PHAGE DNA: SENSITIZATION BY HYDROGEN PEROXIDE (A TRYPTOPHAN PHOTOPRODUCT)
Author(s) -
Ananthaswamy H. N.,
Eisenstark A.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-1097.1976.tb06851.x
Subject(s) - tryptophan , hydrogen peroxide , chemistry , photodissociation , sensitization , photochemistry , dna , irradiation , peroxide , biophysics , biochemistry , amino acid , biology , organic chemistry , physics , nuclear physics , immunology
— Near‐UV irradiation of l ‐tryptophan yields a large number of photoproducts. When this mixture is added to recombinationless ( rec ) mutants of bacteria, the cells are killed. The most toxic component of tryptophan photoproducts has been identified as hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). We now report that both tryptophan photoproducts and H 2 O 2 sensitize phage DNA to near‐UV radiation resulting in enhanced killing as well as enhanced DNA breakages. We conclude that the in situ production of H 2 O 2 via tryptophan photolysis may be an important biological event.