SYNTHESIS OF MESSENGER-LIKE RIBONUCLEIC ACID AND PROTEIN DURING MEIOSIS IN ISOLATED CELLS OF TRILLIUM ERECTUM

The synthesis of RNA and protein by cultures of isolated microsporocytes has been demonstrated. The variation in capacities of such cultures to perform syntheses is a function of meiotic stage and parallels the pattern of changes observed for microsporocytes in situ. A principal feature of this pattern is the induction of syntheses during pachytene and diplotene, stages at which the chromosomes are partly contracted. By use of Actinomycin D, chloramphenicol, pulse-labeling with P(32)-phosphate, and nucleotide analyses of RNA digests, part of the RNA synthesized has been shown to correspond to messenger RNA. Analysis of reaction rates and the overlappings of protein and RNA synthesis indicates that the spread of cytological events in Trillium is not purely a function of the low temperature at which it occurs but, presumably, arises from a complement of regulatory devices which govern the periodic onset of reactions within the cells. The main conclusion drawn from the whole of these studies is that the sequence of morphological changes associated with chromosome contraction and movement during meiosis is accompanied by a set of gene transcriptions. Although comparatively few genes are presumed to be active during meiosis, the action of such genes may be essential to a translation of some of the information embodying the meiotic sequence which has been stored in the genome in the course of evolution.