Kolb, V.A., Makeyev, E.V., Spirin, A.S.
Notes: Luciferase mRNA was transcribed, and the mRNA was translated in a wheat germ extract system. Luminescence was measured by adding luciferin to the translation mixtures before incubation. The accumulation of full-sized luciferase correlated with the increase in light production, and translation arrest lead to immediate cessation of luciferase activity increase. The ribosome-bound protein had no detectable enzymatic activity, but enzymatic activity was shown a few seconds after luciferase was released from the ribosome. Renaturation of denatured luciferase under these conditions had a half-time of approx. 14 minutes, supporting the cotranslational folding hypothesis (peptides start to attain native structure while synthesizing on the ribosome). (0877)