A rapid method for the separation of free and membrane-bound polysomes of rat liver by gel filtration on columns of sepharose 4B.

A rapid method is reported for the separation of free and bound polysomes from total microsomes of rat liver on columns of Sepharose 4B, in which the total procedure from sacrifice of the animal to final preparation takes less than five hours. Both forms of polysomes are active in the incorporation of amino acids into proteins, the free polysomes having approximately twice the activity of bound polysomes. Both preparations contain polysomes at least six ribosomes in length.