Hormonal control of vitellogenin synthesis in avian liver

Estradiol induces the synthesis of vitellogenin in the avian liver. We describe the precursor-product relationship between vitellogenin and the yolk proteins phosvitin and lipovitellin. The high rate of vitellogenin synthesis is a consequence of the accumulation of a stable messenger RNA. We suggest that estradiol acts at the level of the genome by opening a hitherto non-transcribed gene.