MYOSIN HEAVY-CHAIN MESSENGER-RNA IS PRESENT IN BOTH MYOFIBRILLAR AND SUBSARCOLEMMAL REGIONS OF MUSCLE-FIBERS

Hybridization in situ with riboprobes to the myosin heavy-chain slow isoform showed that, in the rat soleus muscle, the myosin heavy-chain mRNA was distributed throughout the myofibres. There was greater density of autoradiographic grains in the subsarcolemmal regions of the fibres, but there was also a considerable number of grains in the core myofibrillar region of the fibres. Microdensitometry showed that the grain density in the myofibrillar region was approximately half that in the subsarcolemmal rim; this would correspond to some 70% of the mRNA being present in the myofibrillar region. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that myosin is synthesized on polyribosomes present in the intermyofibrillar cytoplasm.