Properties of polyadenylate-associated ribonucleic acid from Saccharomyces cerevisiae ascospores.

Bulk ribonucleic acid (RNA) was isolated from mechanically disrupted ascospores of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After two passes over an oligo (dT10) cellulose column, the portion which bound, called poly(A)(+), was characterized. It is heterodisperse in size with a mean molecular weight of approximately 4 X 10(5), but contains some species as large as 7 X 10(5). The base composition is similar to vegetative poly(A)(+) RNA. The polyadenylate segment is also heterogenous in size, ranging from 90 to 20 bases in length, with a peak at approximately 60 nucleotides in length. Pulse-labeling of asci with [3H-methyl]methionine yields two "caps," 7-methyl guanosine-5'-triphosphoryl-5'-adenosine (or guanosine) identical to that found in vegetative poly(A)(+) RNA. The poly(A)(+) RNA in spores is found in polyribosomes which are, on the average, smaller than vegetative ones. Long-term labeling studies indicate that the fraction of poly(A)(+) RNA in spores is similar to that in vegetative cells.