Large sized nascent protein as dominating component during protein synthesis in Chironomus salivary glands

Abstract

The main secretory protein fractions from Chironomus tentans have been investigated with particular emphasis on the dominant fraction, component 1, here designated I (Grossbach, 1969). This polypeptide was suggested to be the translatory product of 75 S RNA from Balbiani ring 2 (BR2) because of its size and quantitative prominence. Its molecular weight was estimated by gel filtration in 8 M urea at 850,000+101,000 D. During short pulses with radioactive amino acids a large fraction of the label was found in a population of polypeptide chains suggestive of molecules continuously growing to the size of component I. Populations of nascent large protein chains of similar size distribution were dominant in the polysomes and constituted the only population present in the largest polysomes, known to contain 75S RNA from BR2 (and BR1) as predominant or only component (Daneholt et al., 1977; Wieslander and Daneholt, 1977). These data indicate strongly that the large size of component I is not a result of posttranslational modifications. No sequence similarities, using limited proteolysis, were found between component I and component II, both of which have been considered to be BR2 products. There was, furthermore, no detectable immunological identity between component I and smaller secretory protein fractions. The data support Grossbach's and Daneholt's suggestion that component I is closely related to the primary translation product of 75S RNA from the large Balbiani rings.