The kinetics and specificities of deamination of nitrogenous compounds by X-radiation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Expts. are described showing the deamination by X-rays of some amino acids and their derivatives, polypeptides and related nitrogenous compounds. The relationship between the ionic yield and radiation dose was studied in detail for glycine. The ionic yield rises from 0.3 to 2.9 for very dilute to nearly saturated solns. The ionic yield for dry glycine was 2.96. An explanation of the high ionic yield with glycine is attempted in terms of the radical hypothesis assuming either a chain reaction or the formation of radicals by excitation in addition to charge neutralization. The continuous rise of the yield is interpreted as being caused by recombination of radicals competing with deamination even at the highest concns. of glycine, due to a low affinity of glycine to radicals. The explanation offered, although consistent with the expts. described, is not wholly satisfactory in view of the radiation effects on thiourea. The biological significance of the results is discussed.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: