-transparent.png){kind=logo}
The injection of heterologous mRNA into fully grown Xenopus oocytes results not only in the synthesis of the heterologous protein but also in a reciprocal decrease in the synthesis of endogenous proteins. This indicates that injected and endogenous mRNAs compete for some component which is rate-limiting for translation in oocytes. We have attempted to identify this rate-limiting translational component. We find that heterologous and homologous polysomes compete with endogenous mRNAs as effectively as naked mRNA, indicating that polysomes do not contain detectable levels of the rate-limiting factor. In addition, we have used micrococcal nuclease digestion and a mRNA-specific oligonucleotide to destroy the mRNA component of polysomes. The remaining polysome factors, when injected into oocytes, failed to stimulate translation. When several eukaryotic translation initiation factors were injected into oocytes, initiation factor 4A consistently increased general oocyte protein synthesis by about twofold. It is possible that the availability of eIF-4A in oocytes is a key factor in limiting the overall rate of protein synthesis.
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
January 2012,
Methods in enzymology,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
January 2019,
Frontiers in oncology,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
May 1998,
Nucleic acids research,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
December 1984,
FEBS letters,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
January 1997,
Nucleic acids research,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
January 2000,
Biochemical and biophysical research communications,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
May 2018,
Cancers,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
April 2011,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
December 2017,
Viruses,
R G Audet, and
J Goodchild, and
J D Richter
January 2003,
Molecular and cellular biology,
