Translational changes induced by 1-methyladenine in anucleate starfish oocytes

Abstract

Translationally mediated changes in the patterns of protein synthesis occur when meiotic maturation of oocytes of Asterias forbesi is induced by 1-methyladenine. These changes, which were detected by electrophoretic separation of proteins labeled with [35S]methionine, begin about the time of germinal vesicle breakdown. Changes in protein synthesis which are indistinguishable from those of intact oocytes occur when nucleate and anucleate oocyte fragments derived by centrifugation are stimulated with 1-methyladenine. Thus these changes in protein synthesis do not require new transcription, and are not the result of the release during maturation of maternal mRNAs or translation factors sequestered in the germinal vesicle. The changes in protein synthesis are due to changes during maturation in the cytoplasmic population of maternal mRNA being translated.