Changes in gene expression during postnatal development of the rat cerebellum.

The base sequence complexity of total and polysomal poly(A +)RNA from rat cerebellum was measured during postnatal development by RNA-DNA hybridization. At saturation, total and polysomal poly(A +)RNA from neonate cerebellum hybridized to 12.7% and 5.0% of the single-copy genomic DNA, respectively. Assuming asymmetric transcription, the sequence complexity of these RNA populations is sufficient to code for greater than 100,000 different gene transcripts. The percentage of single-copy DNA expressed as total and polysomal poly(A +)RNA declined during postnatal development, reaching adult values of 10.0% and 4.1%, respectively. These results indicate that cerebellar maturation is accompanied by significant reductions in the diversity of genetic information expressed in the tissue.