Open AccessFrequency Distribution of Messenger Sequences within Polysomal mRNA and Nuclear RNA from Rat Liver
Author(s) -
SIPPEL Albrecht E.,
HYNES Nancy,
GRONER Bernd,
SCHÜTZ Günther
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
european journal of biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1432-1033
pISSN - 0014-2956
DOI - 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1977.tb11652.x
Subject(s) - complementary dna , messenger rna , polysome , biology , rna , microbiology and biotechnology , cytoplasm , precursor mrna , cell nucleus , p bodies , biochemistry , rna splicing , gene , translation (biology) , ribosome
DNA complementary to polysomal poly(A)‐containing mRNA (cDNA) of male rat liver was used to study the diversity of messenger sequences in the nucleus and in polysomes. 1. Hybridization of cDNA against an excess of its own polysomal mRNA template revealed that about 10000 different mRNA species are expressed in the liver tissue. They are distributed in a wide frequency range derived from approximately 0.5% of the total genome. 2. Hybridization of the cDNA against total nuclear RNA shows that messenger sequences comprise less than 1% of the mass of total nuclear RNA. Messenger sequences have a different frequency distribution in nucleus and cytoplasm. 3. In hybridizations using cDNA, which had been fractionated into sequences representing abundant and scarce polysomal mRNA molecules, it was found that although abundant cytoplasmic messenger sequences are also abundant in the nucleus, they exist in a significantly lower frequency range in the nuclear compartment.