Degradation of nucleic acids with ozone

The degradation of a mixture of four 5′-ribonucleotides (AMP, GMP, CMP and UMP), yeast RNA, yeast phenylalanine tRNA, and tobacco mosaic virus RNA (TMV-RNA) with ozone (concentration in inlet gas, 0.1–0.5 mg/I) was examined in a phosphate buffer (pH 6.9). In the case of the mixture, GMP alone was degraded in the initial stage. In the ozonization of yeast RNA, the guanine moiety was less vulnerable to attack by ozone than in the case of free GMP, but it again degraded most rapidly among the four nucleotides. In the treatment of tRNA with ozone, the guanine moiety degraded first. When the numbers of degraded nucleotides reached 4.8 (remaining amino acid acceptor activity was 3.6%), the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the ozonized tRNA gave a single band with the same mobility as that of the intact tRNA. It is evident that ozonolysis of tRNA proceeded without cleavage of the polynucleotide chain. In the case of TMV-RNA, the loss of the infectivity by ozone proceeded rapidly within 30 min and was followed by preferential degradation of the guanine moiety. The outstanding lability of the guanine moiety observed in each case is discussed in connection with the inactivation of tRNA and TMV-RNA.