Androgenic regulation of poly(A)-containing RNA sequences in rat ventral prostate.

Abstract

Abstract The effect of androgens on RNA production in rat ventral prostate has been studied by analysing the base sequence complexity of cytoplasmic poly(A)-containing RNA from normal and castrated rats. The kinetics of hybridization of RNA from normal animals with its complementary DNA suggests that approximately 50% comprises 2–3 sequences, about 20% comprises 36 sequences while the remainder is a scarce class comprising about 8,000 sequences. Following a three-day castration period the total number of sequences is about the same but there is a marked alteration in the relative concentrations of the sequences. In particular the abundant class of RNA in normal rats was not detected after castration. In heterologous hybridization experiments using normal prostatic complementary DNA as a probe it was shown that the abundant sequences were reduced 10-fold after 3 days. The usefulness of this technique in studying hormone dependent mRNA production in target tissues including the brain will be discussed.