Alterations in polyadenylated messenger ribonucleic acid from free and total polysomes of a rat hepatoma.

We examined the homology between polysomal polyadenylated ribonucleic acid (mRNA) populations of hepatoma 252, a tumor which is deficient in the synthesis of plasma proteins, and those of normal and regenerating rat liver. Hybridization of polyadenylated mRNA populations with homologous or heterologous complementary deoxyribonucleic acids showed that mRNA from total and free polysomes from hepatoma 252 lack sequences which are present in normal or regenerating liver. Although there are obvious differences in the abundance of sequences between tumor and normal or regenerating liver polysomal mRNA, we did not detect, with the techniques used in this work, tumor-specific sequences. Analysis of hybridization curves using derivative plots did not reveal the presence in tumor mRNA of a high complexity class not present in normal liver. We conclude that alterations in mRNA populations of free and total polysomes of this tumor primarily reflect processes of genetic restriction rather than the derepression of previously unexpressed genes.