Is the cytoskeleton-plasma membrane complex involved in lens protein biosynthesis?

Abstract

Calf lens fiber cells contain a population of polyribosomes that direct, at leastin vitro, the synthesis of a specific plasma membrane protein MP26. This protein may serve as a marker in terminal differentiation, since it is absent in the lens epithelium but appears in lens fiber plasma membranes. The MP26 manufacturing polyribosomes are found to be associated with a structural complex in which also the cytoskeleton and plasma membranes participate. They can be released from the complex by treatment with DNAse I. This result presumably reflects the involvement of actin in the linkage of the MP26 synthesizing polyribosomes to the cytoskeleton-membrane complex.