Thyroid hormone regulation of translation in tadpole tail muscle

Recent in vivo and in vitro studies with polyribosomes from the tail muscle of T3-treated tadpoles establish that this hormone initiates a regulating effect on tadpole tail muscle which operates at the translational level and results in an overall decreased rate of protein synthesis (Saleem, M. & Atkinson, B. G. (1978) J. Biol. Chem. 253, 1378-1384). This hormone-induced decrease in the rate of protein synthesis is partially, if not wholly, due to the presence of a sarcoplasmic factor(s) inhibiting ribosomal translational efficiency. This research employs the use of a reconstituted, cell-free polypeptide synthesizing system as a means to substantiate the presence of an inhibitor and further elucidate the mechanism by which this inhibitory factor(s) depresses protein synthesis. The results of this study further demonstrate the presence of an inhibitor of protein synthesis in the tail muscle sarcoplasm of T3-treated tadpoles and suggest that this depressed synthetic activity results from an interaction of the inhibitor with ribosomal or polyribosomal constituents.