Cytoplasmic nonpolysomal ribonucleoprotein particles in sea urchin embryos and their relationship to protein synthesis.

We have examined the relationship between the newly synthesized mRNA that enters polysomes in sea urchin embryos and the messengerlike RNA that enters the pool of ribosome-free ribonucleoprotein particles (free RNPs or informosomes). Although the RNA in the free RNPs turns over 25% more rapidly than in the polysomes, labeling kinetics indicate that the RNA containing poly(A) [poly(A)(+)RNA] and the RNA not containing poly(A) [poly(A)(-)RNA] within each cytoplasmic compartment have very similar half-lives. The poly(A)(+)RNA from both free RNPs and polysomes binds ribosomes almost equally well in a reticulocyte lysate, and this binding is sensitive to inhibitors of initiation. The poly(A)(-)RNA from polysomes initiates as well as poly(A)(+)RNA; however, poly(A)(-)RNA from free RNPs is only half as efficient in binding to ribosomes, and by this criterion is only 50% mRNA. We have also examined the size and dynamics of shortening of the poly(A) tails of poly(A)(+)RNA from free RNPs and polysomes. Pulse-labeled poly(A) from both free RNPs and polysomes is about 180 nucleotides in length. Poly(A) shortening is very rapid in polysomes; steady-state labeled polysomal RNA is largely devoid of the 180-nucleotide-long poly(A) segments. Poly(A) shortening in free RNPs is slower; half of the poly(A) derived from steady-state free RNPs is still 180 nucleotides long. Despite this difference in the rates of poly(A) shortening, polysomes and free RNPs have very similar half-lives. There is, then, no obvious relationship between poly(A) shortening and turnover of mRNA in these embryos. The data are interpreted to mean that poly(A)(+)RNA from free RNPs is enriched for a class of mRNA that initiates less frequently in vivo than the bulk of the cellular mRNA.