The synthesis and degradation of presumptive messenger RNA in cultured mouse leukemia cells during the inhibition of protein synthesis.

RNA synthesis in mouse leukemia L5178Y cells was inhibited depending upon the time of treatment by blasticidin S or by ricin, which inhibits specifically protein synthesis. When blasticidin S or ricin blocked protein synthesis by more than 90% of the control, marked accumulation of monosome was accompanied by the decrease of pulse-labeled RNA (20% of that in the control) in the polysomes and monosome fraction. The size distribution of pulse-labeled RNA among polysomal fractions including monosome obtained from the cells treated with either blasticidin S, ricin of L-asparaginase showed that the size of presumptive mRNA was shifted from 18 S to 9--10 S. TReatment of a blasticidin S-resistant (Bla-R) subline derived from L5178Y cells (Kuwano, M., Matsui, K., Takenaka, K., Akiyama, S. and Endo, H. (1977) Int. J. Cancer 20, 296--302) with L-asparaginase or ricin induced smaller size (9--10 S) RNA, but treatment of Bla-R cells with blasticidin S did not. Such shorter RNA fragments could not be observed even when cellular protein synthesis was inhibited by treatment for short time with blasticidin S (40--80% of the control activity). Smaller RNA fragments accumulated after drastic inhibition of protein synthesis were composed of 74% of polyadenylate sequence lacking poly(A)(-)RNA with peak of approx. 10 S and 26% of polyadenylate sequence containing poly(A)(+)RNA with a peak of 18 S, whereas cytoplasmic polysomal RNA of the control contained 46% poly(A)(+) with a peak of 18 S and 54% poly(A)(-)RNA with a 10--18 S peak. Cytoplasmic poly(A)(+)RNA degraded biphasically with half-lives of approx. 2 h and 8--10 h in exponentially growing mouse cells. However, in degradation of poly(A)(+)RNA molecules being formed in the cells pretreated with blasticidin S for 3 h, the rapid phase of decay with a half-life of approx. 2 h was interrupted by successively appearing poly(A)(+)RNA with a longer half-life of 8--10 h in cytoplasm. However, when the cells were pretreated with blasticidin S for 6 h, there appeared no poly(A)(+)RNA population with the rapid-decay in cytoplasm.