Alteration in microsomal protein synthesis during early development of mouse brain.

The loss of protein synthesis during early mouse-brain development was shown to be the result, at least in part, of the inability of microsomes obtained from more mature neural tissue to participate in rapid polypeptide synthesis. The loss of brain microsomal activity was observed shortly after birth and continued until the animals were approximately ten days old. Despite the difference in synthetic activity, sucrose gradient profiles of microsomes and polyribosomes from young and more mature brain tissue were quite similar. The loss in protein synthesis was shown to be independent of available mRNA and not attributable to aminoacyl-RNA synthetases and tRNA binding activity.