Structural aspects of eye lens polyribosomes.

Epithelial cells and the outer cortex from lenses of 1-day-old calves contain polyribosomes occurring in clusters of five to ten monomers. The structure of these clusters is not affected by trypsin treatment up to 10mug./ml. of ribosomal suspension. When the whole lens is used as starting material the polyribosomal preparations are strongly contaminated with non-ribosomal material, which gives rise to ribosomal aggregates having the appearance of giant polyribosomes. These structures are sensitive to trypsin treatment but resist ribonuclease treatment. The electrophoretic pattern of the contaminating material resembles that of water-soluble lens protein.