Translational discrimination between embryonic and adult mouse globin mRNAs in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate system

In the present study mouse adult (α,β) and embryonic globin (x,y,z) m RNAs are compared for their capacity of being translated in a micrococcus nuclease treated rabbit reticulocyte lysate. The results of these experiments indicate that: 1) α and β adult RNAs are translated with a higher efficiency as compared to the α-like and β-like embryonic mRNAs; 2) adult β and embryonic β-like messengers are translated more efficiently that their corresponding adult α and embryonic α-like messengers; 3) the α/β synthetic ratio, both for adult and embryonic globins is highly dependent upon the concentrations of globin mRNAs. For embryonic globins the ratio decreases from 0.21 at low mRNA concentration to 0.11 at high mRNA concentration. For adult globin mRNAs the α/β chain synthetic ratio decreases from 1.4 to 0.9 within the same range of concentrations.