Abstract
The distribution of preproenkephalin mRNA in rat tissues was investigated using a homologous cDNA probe for detection. The heart was found to contain larger amounts of the mRNA than any other tissue including brain, which heretofore had been considered the richest source. The identity of the message in heart was verified by hybridizing RNA blots with a synthetic oligodeoxynucleotide that recognizes a different region of the preproenkephalin mRNA sequence than does the cDNA probe. The preproenkephalin mRNA extracted from both heart and brain contained approximately equal to 1500 bases. Dissection of heart revealed that essentially all of the message is contained within the ventricles. In contrast to the large amounts of preproenkephalin mRNA in rat heart, the opioid peptide contents is only 3% of the amount in brain. The rat heart may be a useful model for the investigation of translation control of protein synthesis.
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