Abstract
THE molecular weight of mammalian ribosomal RNA has been the subject of various studies. Estimates of molecular weight of RNA by sedimentation and viscosity from Jensen sarcoma1, liver2 and HeLa cell3 ribosomes are between 0.58 and 0.67 × 106 daltons for the small subunit and between 1.64 and 1.9 × 106 daltons for the large subunit. Estimates made by measuring the length of RNA molecules are 0.86 and 0.83 and 1.73 and 1.61 × 106 daltons for the small and large subunits of erythroblast and HeLa cell rRNA when compared with the length of Escherichia coli rRNA4. Estimates made by exonuclease digestion, when compared with E. coli RNA, give values of 0.4 and 0.8 × 106 daltons for the small and large subunits of HeLa cell rRNA5. I now present data which suggest that the RNA from rabbit reticulocytes consists of two main subunits of molecular weight 0.65 and 1.53 × 106 daltons and that in most conditions of isolation there is a small molecule of RNA associated in equimolar amounts with the large RNA subunit.
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HUNT, J. Molecular Weight and Chain Length of Rabbit Reticulocyte rRNA. Nature 226, 950–952 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/226950a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/226950a0
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