Gibberellic acid causes increased synthesis of RNA which contains poly(A) in barley aleurone tissue

Abstract

Incubation of isolated barley aleurone layers with gibberellic acid for 16 hr caused a 50% increase in the synthesis of RNA that contains poly(A) sequences [poly(A)-RNA], but had no measurable effect on the syntheses of the major RNA species. The syntheses of both the poly(A) and the heteropolymeric fractions of the poly(A)-RNA were increased. The poly(A) sequences were separated into two classes by size, one containing an average of 250 nucleotides and the other about 70 nucleotides. The two classes occurred in a molar ratio of about 1:1. Gibberellic acid increased the syntheses of both sequences to the same extent. We interpret these results to mean that gibberellic acid increases specifically the synthesis of mRNA in this tissue.