ABSTRACT
During embryogenesis of Artemia, gastrulae may develop into adults or may encyst and enter a dormant state. Cell-free extracts from these dormant embryos contain messenger RNA (mRNA), large quantities of 80S ribosomes, elongation factors, termination factors, and aminoacyl tRNA synthetases; however, they are inactive in the translation of natural mRNA. The molecular aspects of development includes: the amount and activity of polypeptide chain initiation factors in dormant and developing embryos; the nature of the stored message; the selection of transcripts for translation; and changes in specific mRNAs during the different stages of development. In order to examine the steady-state level of message specific for eukaryotic elongation factor Tu (eEF-Tu) and other proteins during development, poly(A) RNA was from various stages of development and assayed for mRNA activity in a nuclease-treated rabbit reticulocyte cell-free system. Potential changes in the appearance of eEF-Tu mRNA at different stages of development were measured by hybridization with this eEF-Tu-specific complementary DNA (cDNA) probe.
