Methyl mercury-induced combined inhibition of ATP regeneration and protein synthesis in reticulocyte lysate cell-free translation system.

Methyl mercury inhibits in vitro protein synthesis in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate cell-free translation system and simultaneously leads to reduction of the ATP/ADP index. It has been established that there is a close relationship (r = 0.86) between the rates of ATP resynthesis and protein synthesis in vitro within a wide range of the methyl mercury concentrations tested (0.0001-1.0 mumol/ml). Ammonia, CCl4, cycloheximide and pactamycin inhibit translation in vitro without affecting ATP resynthesis. Methanol does not cause substantial alterations of the parameters of the cell-free translation system. Thus, there are at least two essentially different causes of poison-induced in vitro translation blocking. Suppression of ATP resynthesis (methyl mercury) and direct effect on protein synthesis (cycloheximide, CCl4, etc.)