Preferential transcription of the ovalbumin gene in isolated hen oviduct nuclei by RNA polymerase B.

The synthesis of ovalbumin mRNA sequences was studied in isolated nuclei from hen oviduct. Two different methods of analysis were used to distinguish in vitro synthesized from preexisting mRNA sequences: (i) Mercurated ribonucleotides were used for in vitro RNA synthesis, and the newly synthesized RNA was purified by chromatography on sulfhydryl-agarose and hybridized to radioactive ovalbumin cDNA. (ii) [3H]UTP was used to label the in vitro synthesized RNA. Hybridization to unlabeled mercurated cDNA, RNase A digestion, and subsequent purification of the hybrids on SH-agarose allowed the quantitation of newly synthesized ovalbumin mRNA sequences. Approximately 0.1% of the newly synthesized RNA was identified as ovalbumin RNA by both methods. The synthesis of ovalbumin RNA progressed during the incubation of nuclei and was sensitive to actinomycin D and low concentrations of alpha-amanitin. The preferential in vitro transcription of the ovalbumin gene (1000-fold over random transcription of the chicken genome) by RNA polymerase B (nucleosidetriphosphate:RNA nucleotidyltransferase, EC 2.7.7.6) suggests that the specificity of in vitro RNA synthesis is retained in isolated nuclei.