The presence of ribonucleic acid in the cell walls of higher plants

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Abstract
A method for isolating extensively purified cell walls from higher plants is described; the preparations contain no detectable chloroplast or nuclear material and the protein content (2-5 % of the dry wt. of walls) indicates that there is little contamination with cytoplasm. Incubation of purified cell walls with 0. 3 N-potassium hydroxide for 17 hr. at 37[degree] liberates ribonucleotides, which can be purified by adsorption on charcoal and and by ion-exchange chromatography. Ribonucleotides are also liberated by incubating the walls with RNase, but not with DNase. The RNA content varies from 0. 5 to 6 mg/g dry wt. of walls, depending on the nature and age of the tissue, and at 3 mg/g dry wt. of walls accounts for about 7 /o of the total RNA of the tissue. Less than 0. 2% of the RNA of the walls is due to the presence of bacteria in the preparation. The base composition of the cell-wall RNA is identical with that of ribosomal RNA.