The identification of cytochrome P-450-LM2 synthesized in vitro from a rabbit liver polysomal mRNA template

We demonstrate the in vitro synthesis of cytochrome P-450-LM2 (phenobarbital-inducible form of liver microsomal cytochrome P-450) from a rabbit liver polysomal mRNA template by specific immunoprecipitation of the product. The in vitro synthesized cytochrome P-450-LM2 comigrates with authentic cytochrome P-450-LM2 on sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gels, and is also selectively competed by authentic purified cytochrome P-450-LM2. In addition, we demonstrate that phenobarbital increases the amount of translatable mRNA for cytochrome P-450-LM2 but not for albumin, suggesting that phenobarbital has selective effects on the amount of available translatable mRNA or on mRNA biosynthesis.