The effect of protein synthesis inhibition on the entry of messenger RNA into the cytoplasm of sea urchin embryos

Abstract

Emetine is a potent inhibitor of protein synthesis in sea urchin embryos. At a concentration of the drug that rapidly inhibits protein synthesis in blastulae by 95 %, uridine incorporation into RNA continues for more than 1 hr and presumptive histone messenger RNA is synthesized and transported into the cytoplasm where it is apparently associated with polyribosomes. Possible explanations of this result and its implications for the "informasome" theory of messenger transport in embryonic cells are discussed. © 1971, Rockefeller University Press. All rights reserved.