Wheat embryo ribonucleates XI. Conserved mRNA in dry wheat embryos and its relation to protein synthesis during early imbibition

Abstract

Bulk poly(A)-rich RNA from dry wheat [Triticum aestivum] embryos is broadly heterodisperse when examined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The poly(A)-rich RNA from dry wheat embryos was translated in a cell-free protein-synthesizing system from the same commercially supplied, roller-milled wheat embryos. Compatible with the electrophoretic heterodispersity observed for poly(A)-rich RNA, the radioactive products of its cell-free translation, when examined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, have mobilities that are broadly coincident with the many dye-stained (nonradioactive) proteins present in wheat extracts. With due allowance for the limitations of the cell-free system, which is known to translate, selectively, lower MW species of mRNA, it was concluded that the conserved poly(A)-rich mRNA in dry wheat embryos probably has the translational capacity required to account for the highly eclectic protein synthesis that was observed during early (40 min) imbibition of viable wheat embryos.