EFFECT OF DIETARY LEVEL OF PROTEIN ON THE METABOLISM OF MOUSE-LIVER NUCLEAR PROTEINS

The effect of protein depletion and refeeding on the metabolism of mouse liver nuclear proteins was studied. Five days protein depletion caused a 35% decrease in total nuclear protein. A fast recovery of the lost proteins, except histones, was induced when depleted mice were refed with a normal diet. Depletion caused a decrease in total nuclear protein synthesis, whereas refeeding quickly restored its normal value. The rates of total nuclear protein breakdown were estimated either as the difference between synthesis and protein gain or from the decay of radioactivity in protein labeled by the administration of both sodium [C-14]bicarbonate and [S-35]methionine. By these procedures, it was found that refeeding caused a slowdown in total nuclear protein breakdown. Hence, the recovery of the protein content observed during refeeding is due to both a restoration of synthesis and a decrease of breakdown. The [C-14]bicarbonate procedure did not permit to obtain a high efficiency of label and, therefore, it was unsatisfactory for the measurement of the breakdown of fractionated nuclear proteins. A labeling procedure using [S-35]methionine was designed for adequate measures of the decay of radioactivity in these proteins. This allows us to find that a slow down in breakdown affects similarly during refeeding to histones, to non histones, and to a fraction which contains ribonucleoproteins and soluble proteins.