Messenger ribonucleic acid transcripts of pea chloroplast deoxyribonucleic acid.

The total ribonucleic acid (RNA) from pea chloroplasts has been found to hybridize with 50% of the base sequences of pea chloroplast deoxyribonucleic acid (ctDNA). The specificity of hybridization has been analyzed by competition experiments and thermal stability studies of ctDNA-RNA hybrids. The ctDNA-specific RNA does not hybridize with the nuclear DNA. There is about 2-3% reduction in the total hybridization of ctDNA with RNA from the dark grown leaves. About 0.15-0.2% of the RNA from chloroplasts has been found to contain poly(A) tracts. About 20-25% of RNA. Poly(A-) RNA, however, has been found to hybridize with 50% of the ctDNA. The molecular sizes of the mRNA transcripts have been found to range from 0.3 X 10(6) to 3 X 10(6).