Abstract
RNA from 6-day preimplantation rabbit blastocysts hybridizes with 1.8% of the nonrepeated portion of the rabbit genome. This indicates that at least the quantitative equivalent of about 60,000 unique base sequences 1000 nucleotides in length is transcribed. RNA from embryos implanted in the uterus (12-day) hybridizes with 2.5% of the nonrepeated DNA. The extent to which these transcripts in early rabbit embryos are unique to this stage of the mammalian life cycle is not known. About 70% of the newly synthesized heterogeneous RNA (hRNA) from 4- and 6-day blastocysts hybridizes with the slow-renaturing or nonrepeated portion of the genome. Since estimates of messenger RNA (mRNA) content of hRNA (Schultz et al., 1973), based on polyadenylic acid content, suggest that about 20% of the hRNA is mRNA, it appears that the majority of the transcripts from nonrepeated DNA in preimplantation rabbit embryos is not mRNA.
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This work was supported by an award from the National Institutes of Health NICHD-70-2259. G. S. was supported through a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Research Council of Canada. W. H. is a recipient of a NIH Career Development Award (1-KO4-NS-20, 056-01-NSRB).
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Schultz, G.A., Manes, C. & Hahn, W.E. Estimation of the diversity of transcription in early rabbit embryos. Biochem Genet 9, 247–259 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00485738
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00485738