The Initiation of Globin Synthesis in Differentiating Rabbit‐Bone‐Marrow Erythroid Cells

Abstract

At a particular stage of erythropoiesis, the immature erythroid cell commences synthesis of the messenger[m]RNA for globin. Rabbit bone marrow erythroid cells were separated according to their degree of maturity by velocity sedimentation on a sucrose gradient. Their relative abilities to synthesize globin were measured by radioactive labeling in culture and the relative proportions of globin mRNA in cellular RNA were determined by hybridization to DNA complementary to globin mRNA. The increasing ability to synthesize globin closely paralleled the concentration of globin mRNA at all stages of differentiation, suggesting that there was no significant delay between transcription and translation.