Developmental modulation of protein synthesis in Drosophila primary embryonic cell cultures

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Abstract
The patterns of proteins synthesized during embryonic development in Drosophila melanogaster have been examined by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis. Primary cell cultures prepared from donor embryos synchronized to ± 1 hr were labeled with [35S]methionine at 5, 11.5, 14.5, and 26 hr after oviposition. Of approximately 400 to 500 proteins detected, the synthesis of about 50 is developmentally modulated. The greatest number of changes in the synthesis of stage‐specific proteins occurs at 11.5 and 14.5 hr after oviposition, periods just prior to and during the times of the greatest overt morphological and biochemical changes. At 11.5 hr, 35 stage‐specific proteins are synthesized, including 19 that are not present at the previous stage examined. At 14.5 hr, 34 stage‐specific proteins can be detected, including 11 newly synthesized proteins. However, 12 proteins from the previous stage are no longer synthesized. At the completion of embryonic differentiation, at 26 hr, no new proteins are synthesized and the synthesis of many present in earlier stages has decreased or stopped. Comparison of patterns of embryonic proteins to those synthesized by two Drosophila continuous cell lines reveals that the majority of proteins are common to all. However, only about 40% of the embryonic stage‐specific proteins are present in either cell line. In addition, there are several proteins unique to each cell line that are not observed in any of the embryonic stages.