Quantitative changes in in vitro and in vivo protein synthesis in aging and rejuvenated soybean cotyledons.

Cotyledons of light-grown soybean (Glycine max L. var Wayne) seedlings were used as a model system to study the possibility that aging requires qualitative changes in protein synthesis. Cotyledons reached a final stage of senescence and then abscised about 22 days after imbibition. Cotyledon senescence was reversed at 20 days after germination by epicotyl removal. Thereafter, the cotyledons regained much of the chlorophyll, RNA, protein, and polyribosomes lost during aging.Total poly(A)mRNA was extracted from 4-, 12-, 20-day-old, and rejuvenated cotyledons and translated in a wheat germ system. Comparison of translation products on two-dimensional O'Farrell gels showed that many translation products increased in quantity during aging, while roughly half as many decreased. Rejuvenation returned the translation products to approximately 4-day-old levels in roughly half of those products which were diminished with age. Conversely, almost one-third of the products which had increased with age decreased with rejuvenation. None of the translation products were totally lost nor were newly synthesized products detected during aging. Therefore, aging in this system probably does not involve complete gene repression or depression. The observation that epicotyl removal causes a reversal in the levels of various proteins synthesized in vitro was corroborated by similar observations following in vivo labeling of cotyledon sections and analysis by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and fluorography. Densitometric scans of fluorograms revealed a gradual shift in profiles of both in vitro and in vivo translation products during aging. Rejuvenated cotyledon proteins had a profile resembling that of 4-day-old cotyledons. The overall level of [(35)S]methionine incorporation into protein in vivo declined gradually during aging but was restored to 4-day-old levels within 2 days after epicotyl removal.