Direction of synthesis of messenger RNA in cells of Escherichia coli.
- 1 December 1965
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 54 (6) , 1669-1675
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.54.6.1669
Abstract
Temperature reduction to 0[degree] was used to slow the synthesis of mRNA in intact cells of E. coli. This made it possible to label nonuniformly with C14-uridine. Radioactivity in the 3[image]-terminal nucleosides released by alkaline hydrolysis became constant very early, whereas radioactivity in the nucleotides increased linearly. The polarity of mRNA synthesis is therefore 5[image][forward arrow]3[image]. The average assembly rate of a mRNA strand at 0[degree] is about 1/13 residue/sec., or about 1/40 codon/sec. Since the polarities of mRNA synthesis and of protein synthesis are the same, ribo-somes may synthesize protein on strands of nascent mRNA. Some ribosomes may translate mRNA cistrons whose synthesis is already complete. There are about 800-1,1000 strands of nascent mRNA/cell, probably about the num -ber of operons in E. coli. There is too much nascent mRNA to be saturated by the 5,000 active ribosomes, so not all the nascent messages could be translated simultaneously.This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
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