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Myxococcus xanthus synthesizes a stabilized messenger RNA during fruiting body formation

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Abstract

Initial characterization of the unstable 5S-to-16S RNA fraction from developingMyxococcus xanthus cells reveals that it is rapidly labeled with radioactive RNA precursor and is associated with polyribosomes and released by puromycin from polyribosomes. The total unstable RNA fraction from 10-min pulse-labeled developing cells has a half-life of 13 min, compared with a 4-min half-life for unstable RNA (presumptive mRNA) from vegetative cells pulse-labeled for 2 min. We conclude that this developmental 5S-to-16S RNA contains messenger RNA and that this mRNA is stabilized compared with that in vegetative cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, 55455, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Beverly A. Smith & Martin Dworkin

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  1. Beverly A. Smith
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  2. Martin Dworkin
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Smith, B.A., Dworkin, M. Myxococcus xanthus synthesizes a stabilized messenger RNA during fruiting body formation. Current Microbiology 6, 95–100 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01569011

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