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. 1990 Jan;87(2):831–835. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.2.831

Isolation and initial characterization of a specific premessenger ribonucleoprotein particle.

T Wurtz 1, A Lönnroth 1, L Ovchinnikov 1, U Skoglund 1, B Daneholt 1
PMCID: PMC53360  PMID: 2300567

Abstract

A specific type of premessenger ribonucleoprotein (RNP) particle, Balbiani ring (BR) granules, has been isolated from heterogeneous nuclear RNP (hnRNP) in the salivary glands of the dipteran Chironomus tentans. A BR granule contains a single 75S RNA molecule coding for a large secretory protein (Sp1). The isolation procedure is based on the abundance and exceptional size of the BR granules: in EDTA-containing sucrose gradients they sediment as a sharp 300S peak ahead of the remainder of the hnRNP population. The isolated BR granules were identified on the basis of both ultrastructural and biochemical criteria: large spherical particles that contain 75S RNA and BR sequences. A three-dimensional reconstruction of isolated particles by electron microscope tomography further supported the identification of the isolated particles as BR granules. In contrast to the entire hnRNP population, the BR granules exhibited a sharp peak in CsCl gradients with a buoyant density of 1.45 g/cm3. This result indicates that a BR granule consists of 40% RNA and 60% protein by weight, corresponding to a 75S RNA molecule of 12 megadaltons and a total protein content of 18 megadaltons, or about 500 average-sized protein molecules.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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