Partial purification and characterization of the messenger RNA for cell fibronectin

Fibronectin mRNA has been partially purified by guanidine extraction, oligo-(dT)-cellulose chromatography and sucrose density gradient centrifugation. We obtain a fraction which programs a wheat germ in vitro translation system to synthesize a polypeptide species which co-electrophoreses with fibronectin in SDS-polyacrylamide gels and which is immunoprecipitated with affinity purified fibronectin-specific IgG. Analysis of this RNA fraction by methyl mercury hydroxide-agarose gel electrophoresis reveals the presence of a band accounting for 30 percent to 50 percent of the ethidium bromide-staining material in the fraction. The RNA of this band has an estimated molecular weight of about 3 million daltons and is greatly reduced in the corresponding RNA fraction from RSV transformed CEF. This RNA has been tentatively identified as fibronectin mRNA.