Identification of N-terminal methionine in the precursor of immunoglobulin light chain. Initiation of translation of messenger ribonucleic acid in plants and animals.

The proteins programmed in the wheat-germ cell-free system by the mRNA coding for the MOPC-321 mouse myeloma L (light) chain were labelled with [35S]methionine, [4,5-3H]leucine or [3-3H]serine, and were subjected to amino acid-sequence analyses. Over 95% of the total cell-free product was sequenced as one homogeneous protein, which corresponds to the precursor of the L-chain protein. In the precursor, 20 amino acid residues precede the N-terminus of the mature protein. This extra piece contains one methionine residue at the N-terminus, one serine residue at position 18, and six leucine residues, which are clustered in two triplets at positions 6, 7, 8 and 11, 12, 13. The identification of methionine at the N-terminus of the precursor is in agreement with the evidence showing that unblocked methionine is the initiator residue for protein synthesis in eukaryotes. The absence of methionine at position 20, which precedes the N-terminal residue of the mature protein, suggests that myeloma cells synthesize the precursor. However, within the cell the precursor should be rapidly processed to the mature L chain, since precursor molecules have not yet been found in the intact animal. The abundance (30%) of leucine residues indicates that the extra-piece moiety is quite hydrophobic. The extra piece of the MOPC-321 L-chain precursor synthesized with the aid of the Krebs II ascites cell-free system is of identical size and it has the same leucine sequence [Schechter et al. (1975) Science 188, 160-162]. This indicates that cell-free systems derived from the plant and animal kingdom initiate mRNA translation from the same point. It is shown that the amino acid sequence of minute amounts of a highly labelled protein (0.1 pmol) can be faithfully determined in the presence of a large excess (over 2000 000-fold) of unrelated non-radioactive proteins.