RNase III had no positive effect on the translation of bacteriophage T7 lysozyme mRNA in vivo or in vitro. The time of appearance and quanity of lysozyme in T7-infected E. coli BL107, an RNase III- strain, and T7-infected E. coli BL15, a nearly isogenic RNase III+ strain, were indistinguishable. Nearly identical patterns of lysozyme mRNA activity were obtained when RNA extracted at different times after infection of RNase III+ and RNase III- hosts was translated in cell-free extracts of E. coli containing or lacking RNase III. Exposure of RNA extracted from T7-infected E. coli BL107 (RNase III-) to purified RNase III did not increase the lysozyme mRNA activity of this RNA. The only result that implied that RNase III has a differential effect on the translatability of the lysozyme mRNA was the translation of fractionaed RNA from T7-infected E. coli BL107. Translation of the smallest and largest lysozyme messages, 0.33 x 10(6) and 4 x 10(6) to 5 x 10(6) daltons, was the most inefficient in RNase III- cell-free extracts as compared to RNase III+ cell-free translation. The translation of the most abundant, medium-sized lysozyme mRNA between 0.9 x 10(6) and 1.5 x 10(6) daltons was the least affected by the absence of RNase III. The existence of a lag between the appearance of lysozyme mRNA and the appearance of lysozyme in T7 infection was confirmed. In these studies a very rapid method of RNA extraction was used, eliminating the possibility of continued RNA transcription during cell collection and RNA extraction. With this method of analysis, the length of the lag period was established at about 3 min. The possibility that RNase III is the controlling element of the lag period was eliminated by these investigations.