Aberrant recovery of protein synthesis after massive irradiation of Arachis hypogaea, L. cells in vitro

Protein synthesis and respiration of 3 day old V-56R peanut (Arachis hypogaea, L.) cell-suspension cultures are reduced to 45-55% of controls immediately after a massive dose (500 Krad) of radiation. However, they apparently recovered during 3-4 days of postirradiation period. Recovery in protein synthesis and respiration continued and exceeded the control levels one week after radiation. Analysis of the proteins synthesized during the postirradiation period indicated that the distribution of radioactivity in labeled proteins is changed and large molecular weight proteins are directly or indirectly broken down to low molecular weight fractions. A significant increase in endogenous free amino acids is observed during the postirradiation period. Both respiration and protein synthesis started to decline 2 weeks after irradiation and levelled well below the controls during subsequent postirradiation period. Although quantitatively protein synthesis showed an apparent recovery after massive irradiation, the pr...