Abstract
A procedure to assay chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) based on the separation of the acetyl derivatives on micropolyamide is described. This chromatographic method separates rapidly and quantitatively 1-acetyl, 3-acetyl, and 1,3-diacetyl chloramphenicol from chloramphenicol, and as little as 35 pmol of these derivatives can be detected easily. The procedure has been used to assay the enzyme in extracts of chicken fibroblast transfected with the recombinant plasmid pSV2-cat containing the CAT gene.