Repetitive sequences associated with polyadenylated RNA of Xenopus laevis embryos.

Electron microscopy revealed that transcripts of complementary repetitive sequence elements are widely distributed among long poly (A) containing RNA molecules of Xenopus laevis. cDNA/RNA hybridization experiments suggest that many of these polyadenylated transcripts carry protein coding sequences which are interrupted by repetitive elements. Our in-vitro translation experiments indicate that removal of repetitive elements must precede the utilization of protein coding sequences associated with them. Thus processing of maternal transcripts may be of significance in the regulation of gene expression during early development.