Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and sedimentation analysis under denaturing conditions of poly(A)-containing RNA from the polysome region of the sedimentation pattern of a HeLa-cell mitochondrial lysate has revealed the occurrence of a discrete RNA component, which sediments in the native state with a sedimentation constant of about 7 S. From the sedimentation behavior under native and denaturing conditions and the poly(A) content, a molecular weight of about 9 X 104 has been estimated for this component. RNA-DNA hybridization experiments have indicated that this component is coded for by the light strand of mitochondrial DNA. Evidence for the occurrence of a poly(A)-containing RNA component sedimenting at about 9 S and coded for by the heavy strand has also been obtained.Poly(A) sequences of a size corresponding to 60-80 nucleotides occur in mitochondrial RNA from HeLa cells (1, 2); a poly(A)-synthesizing enzyme has been identified in rat-liver mitochondria (3,4). In HeLa cells, the majority of mitochondrial poly(A) is covalently linked to mitochondrial DNA (mit-DNA)-coded RNA (2). Inasmuch as poly(A) in eukaryotic cells appears to be associated only with cytoplasmic messenger RNA (mRNA) and its presumptive nuclear precursors (5-10), and with viral or viral-directed RNA with messenger function (5,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15), the above evidence strongly suggests that at least a portion of the mRNA translated by mitochondrial polysomes is coded for by mit-DNA.Previously (2), no clear-cut evidence of discrete components was observed in the sedimentation patterns of poly(A)-containing RNA from HeLa-cell mitochondria. The main source of difficulty was probably the tendency of poly(A)-containing molecules to aggregate and sediment with heavier molecules. Thus, RNA from the polysome region of the sedimentation pattern of a mitochondrial lysate, selected for poly(A) by two passages through poly(dT)-cellulose and analyzed in sucrose gradient in the native state, showed a fairly uniform distribution of material in the region from 6 S to about 16 S, with only a hint of a 7S component emerging over a background of heterogeneous RNA. After formaldehyde denaturation and sedimentation in the presence of formaldehyde, most of the poly-(A)-containing RNA sedimented more slowly than 12 S RNA, and a pronounced sharp peak sedimenting about 20% faster than denatured 5S RNA and 40% slower than denatured 12S RNA was observed. ,ug/ml of ethidium bromide (eih. brom.), and passed through poly(dT)-cellulose. The mitochondrial 12S RNA and cytoplasmic 5S RNA were treated as the experimental samples and run in parallel gels.
RESULTSA Triton X-100 mitochondrial lysate from HeLa cells labeled for 2 hr with [8-8H]adenosine in the presence of 0.1 ug/ml of actinomycin D was run through a sucrose gradient, and RNA was extracted from the polysome region (74-180 S) of the gradient (21) and passed through a poly(dT)-cellulose column. It had been shown (1, 2) that poly(dT)-cellulose or poly(U) filters bind mitochondrial poly(A)-containing RNA, wh...