PMID: 701288Nov 10, 1978Paper

Inhibition of elongation steps of protein synthesis at reduced potassium concentrations in reticulocytes and reticulocyte lysate

The Journal of Biological Chemistry
F Cahn, M Lubin

Abstract

We treated intact reticulocytes with nystatin to make them permeable to small cations and varied the concentration of K+ in the medium; the ionic strength was kept constant by adjusting Na+. As the intracellular K+ was lowered, the rate of protein synthesis decreased. In a reticulocyte lysate, the dependence of the rate of protein synthesis on K+ concentration (at constant ionic strength) was similar to that seen in nystatin-treated cells. We observed no loss of polysomes at low K+. Even when initiation was blocked with aurintricarboxylic acid, decreased K+ inhibited protein synthesis. Analysis of the kinetics of synthesis showed that lowering the K+ concentration inhibits the rate of elongation of nascent chains, but has little effect on the relative rate of initiation of chains.

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