Some Studies on the Antimutagenic Action of Polyamines

Abstract

Cells of all organisms contain one or more basic substances. In the bacteria and the viruses these are polyamines while in animal cells the polyamines are usually supplemented by basic proteins such as the histones. These basic molecules have been implicated in a large number of biochemical processes. They are known to affect RNA synthesis and protein synthesis (Muench, 1969, 1967; Nicholson and Peacocke, 1966; Scholtissek and Brecht, 1966; O’Brien, Olenick and Hahn, 1966, and many others). In the viruses they are presumed to play a key role in the folding of the viral nucleic acids to permit their encapsulation in the limited space afforded inside the viral capsule. Similarly, the histones appear to be synthesized in mammalian cells in perfect balance with the synthesis of DNA (Bazill and Philpot, 1963; Butler and Cohn, 1963; Littlefield and Jacobs, 1965) and they occur as complexes with DNA. They are likely to play an important role in the regulation of the availability of the DNA genome for translation into RNA and protein (Bonner and Huang, 1966).