Cell-free synthesis of putative neurophysin precursors from rat and mouse hypothalamic poly (A)-RNA.

Poly(A)-containing RNA has been isolated from rat and mouse hypothalamic tissue and used to direct the synthesis of polypeptides in cell-free systems derived from wheat germ extract and rabbit reticulocyte lysate in the presence of [³⁵S]-L-cysteine and [³H]-L-proline. Translation products were subjected to immunoprecipitation using an antiserum to rat neurophysin proteins. Following purification of the immunoprecipitates by protein A-Sepharose chromatography, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed a single polypeptide species of molecular weight 17,500 derived from both cell-free systems.