(5'-32P)-8-azidoguanosine-3',5'-monophosphate. I. Synthesis and properties. II. Interaction with E. coli proteins

Under certain conditions of nutritional deprivation, microorganisms produce the magic spot nucleotides guanosine-3'-diphosphate-5'-triphosphate(pppGpp) and the tetraphosphate ppGpp. The latter is known to be a pleiotypic effector, i.e. it inhibits (and sometimes stimulates) many biological processes including transcription, translation, and metabolic pathways. It is unknown whether pppGpp, ppGp, pGpp, and pGp, other members of this family of guanosine-3',5'-phosphates, also have regulatory properties. To begin to investigate this question, a radioactive photoaffinity analog of pGp was prepared: (5'32P)pN3Gp. The interaction of this photoprobe with E. coli sonicates and a purified protein (RNA polymerase) was examined. At physiological salt concentrations two proteins (RNA polymerase) was examined. At physiological salt concentrations two proteins of 86,000 and 65,000 daltons (p86 and p65) were primarily photolabeled. Competition studies with guanosine and adenosine nucleotides indicated (5 32P)pN3Gp was labeling a ppGpp binding site on p86, and a pGp (or GMP) site on p65. ATP phosphorylation of p86 increased photoincorporation, while it decreased labeling of p65. The data also provide evidence of a different type of regulatory mechanism, i.e. phosphorylation modulates binding of an allosteric effector (ppGpp) to a protein(enzyme). Both ATP and GTP were found to phosphorylate the same proteins, although GTP was the preferred substrate in some cases