Ribonucleic acids of differentiating and non-differentiating uredosporelings of wheat stem rust

Abstract

Uredospores of wheat stem rust (Puccinia graminis Pers. f. sp. tritici Eriks. & E. Henn.) were deposited onto Millipore membranes and allowed to germinate. Those remaining continuously at 20° formed germ tubes only (non-differentiated), but those exposed to 30° for 90 min after the first 2 h of germination developed infection structures corresponding to appressoria and substomatal vesicles (differentiated).Nucleic acids were extracted with a phenol method from resting uredospores and from differentiated and non-differentiated sporelings. The amount of extractable RNA decreased as germination progressed, but no RNA was detected in the germination medium. The decrease in extractable RNA (up to 40%) occurred in both differentiated and non-differentiated sporelings.Acrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to separate RNA species and to determine their approximate molecular weights (in daltons): sporelings contained 25-S (1.65 × 106) and 18-S (0.80 × 106) ribosomal RNA (rRNA), 5-S (3.6 × 104) rRNA, and 4.5-S (2.4 × 104) transfer RNA (tRNA). Radioactive uridine, fed to sporelings, was incorporated mostly into 5-S rRNA and (or) tRNA.Acrylamide gel electrophoresis and sucrose density gradient centrifugation revealed that differentiated sporelings contained a type of RNA that was not detected in non-differentiated sporelings. It was heterogeneous and migrated in the 16-S to 5-S interval on polyacrylamide gels. Some of the RNA present in this fraction may have been preformed in resting spores and released from more complex material during the process of differentiation.