Stability of Polysome-Associated Polyadenylated RNA from Soybean Suspension Culture Cells

The half-life of polysome-associated, poly(A)-RNA in exponentially growing soybean (Glycine max) suspension culture cells was determined with pulse-chase experiments. Based on a best fit from a computer analysis of the data, two decay components for poly(A)-RNA were found. One component had a half-life of approximately 0.6 h, while the other had a half-life of about 30 h, similar to the doubling time of the cultures. At the beginning of the chase period, the short-lived component represented approximately 90% of the total poly(A)-RNA in the polysomes. This percentage decreased with time so that, under steady-state conditions, the long-lived component probably represented the majority of poly(A)-RNA.