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ARTICLE
STABILITIES OF NUCLEAR AND MESSENGER RNA MOLECULES IN SEA URCHIN EMBRYOS
Dr. Brandhorst's present address is the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302. Dr. Humphrey's present address is the Pacific Biomedical Research Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822.
The kinetics of accumulation of radioactive adenosine in adenosine triphosphate and in RNA of nuclear, cytoplasmic, and polysomal fractions of sea urchin embryos have been analyzed. 85% of the RNA synthesized decays in the nucleus with an apparently uniform half-life of about 7 min. The remaining 15% goes to the cytoplasm, mostly entering polysomes, and decays with a quite uniform half-life of about 75 min. The nuclear RNA accounts for one-third and the cytoplasmic RNA accounts for two-thirds of the total unstable RNA which accumulates at steady state in the embryo. The size distribution of short-labeled nuclear RNA is very similar to that of long-labeled messenger RNA, when both are extracted directly from the cells without a previous cell fractionation.
Revised on January 10, 1972
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