Abstract
We have used a two-dimensional gel analysis of cell-free translation products to determine whether individual mRNAs present in Drosophila melanogaster embryos, larvae, pupae, and adults are predominantly polyadenylated or nonadenylated. While the majority of the embryonic mRNAs we detected exist mainly in the polyadenylated form, these mRNAs become more evenly distributed between the poly(A) + and poly(A) − RNA fractions during postembryonic development. Although DNA:RNA hybridization experiments have indicated that Drosophila RNA populations contain a large group of rare class mRNAs restricted to the poly(A) − RNA compartment, this is not true for the 150 more abundant mRNA species analyzed by our methods. The histone mRNAs are the only abundant mRNA species which appear to be exclusively in the poly(A) − RNA class.
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