Isolation and Characterization of Ribosomes from Bacillus subtilis Spores

Abstract

Bishop, Helen L. (Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.), and Roy H. Doi . Isolation and characterization of ribosomes from Bacillus subtilis spores. J. Bacteriol. 91: 695–701. 1966.—The isolation of ribosomes from Bacillus subtilis spores was accomplished by freezing the spores in liquid nitrogen and grinding the spore pellet with an equal weight of levigated alumina. The ribosomes, which were adsorbed to the alumina, were freed by the addition of vegetative-cell ribosomes or bulk ribonucleic acid (RNA) to the crude alumina-ground extract. The spore ribosomes had sedimentation properties and RNA and protein compositions similar to those of vegetative-cell ribosomes. The difficulty encountered in obtaining spore ribosomes by ordinary extraction methods may be the result of nuclease and protease activities which were demonstrated in spore extracts.