Tryptophan deficiency in rabbit reticulocytes: polyribosomes during interrupted growth of hemoglobin chains.

Of several amino acids essential for optimum hemoglobin synthesis by the rabbit reticulocyte, only omission of tryptophan results in polyribosome disaggregation. This disaggregation is prevented by the omission of both tryptophan and an amino acid that is relatively more essential than tryptophan for hemoglobin synthesis. Since tryptophan is located only near the amino-terminal ends of both chains of rabbit globin, the results indicate that single ribosomes and those in polyribosomes are in a dynamic state in the intact cell.