Developmental variations of a nonfibroin mRNA of Bombyx mori silkgland, encoding for a low-molecular-weight silk protein

The characterization of a new silk protein mRNA (P25 mRNA) in posterior silkgland cells (PSG) and the developmental variations of its cell molecular concentration versus that of fibroin mRNA are described. A 80% pure P25 cDNA was obtained by class separation of total nonfibroin cDNA from PSG and used to identify the mRNA in blotted PSG mRNA as a single 1100 nucleotide long species. When purified from agarose gel and translated in a reticulocyte cell-free system, P25 mRNA yielded a 25-kD polypeptide (P25), identical to a 25-kD protein of the cocoon in terms of pI value and partial peptide mapping pattern. Moreover, this protein comigrated with an abundant polypeptide of the posterior silkgland (PSG) and of the middle silkgland (MSG). When tritiated leucine was injected in vivo, labeled P25 showed up in the PSG after a 2-hr pulse but appeared in the MSG only after 24 hr of labeling. Since MSG cells were found to be devoid of P25 mRNA, we concluded that P25 is exclusively synthesized in the PSG, that it accumulates in the MSG lumen and that it is spun out in the same way as fibroin. Specific probes were used to measure the concentrations of P25 mRNA and also fibroin mRNA in PSG total RNA by hybridization with an excess of cDNA. Both species are highly degraded in the few hours following the physiological arrest of feeding which precedes the fourth molting period. Their subsequent accumulation during the fifth intermolt is triggered by food uptake and proceeds in such a way that a constant 1:1 molar ratio is maintained during the period of silk secretion.     

The biosynthesis of fibroin: II. The synthesis of fibroin in a crude cell-free system

The properties of a crude cell-free system able to incorporate amino acids into fibroin are described. Fibroin is characterized by its composition and its sedimentation properties on sucrose gradients.Two populations of membrane-bound ribosomes can be characterized by the utilization of puromycin and detergents for releasing the newly made chains. One population produces fibroin, which remains associated with the membrane fraction, the other produces different proteins which are released into the cell sap.