ABSTRACT
The protein synthetic factors are probably the most studied of the effectors of post-dormancy events. Modulation of the amounts of molecules that affect protein synthetic factors is relevant to the repression of translation during dormancy and the coordinated establishment of protein synthesis in the developing embryo. Translation of Messenger Ribonucleic acid (mRNA) isolated from brine shrimp embryos was found to be inhibited by the inclusion in the assay of the cap analogue, 7-methylguanosine 5'-monophosphate as well as by other synthetic analogues. The mRNA that is present in dormant cysts has a number of unusual states, all of which seem to lack template activity. The activation of development associated with the fertilization of sea urchin eggs and the germination of seeds depends on the activation of masked mRNA and is insensitive to actinomycin D, an inhibitor of transcription, and is therefore under translational control.
