Effects of androgens on the transcription of secretory protein genes in rat seminal vesicle.

Run-on transcription in isolated nuclei has been used to study the effects of testosterone on gene expression in rat seminal vesicles. General transcriptional rates were increased by about 6-fold with an additional 2- to 3-fold differential stimulation of the genes for secretory proteins IV and V. These transcriptional changes are insufficient to explain overall changes in cellular mRNA levels, indicating that androgens must also have major effects on post-transcriptional processing of RNA transcripts or on mRNA stability. Analysis of nuclear RNA by Northern blotting with intron probes suggests substantial androgen effects on primary transcript processing.