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Hepatic ribosomes have been dissociated into biologically active subunits as follows. Polysomes were treated at 0 degrees C with puromycin at high ionic strength. This released most of the nascent polypeptide chains without dissociating the polysomes, which retained the mRNA and the tRNA moiety of peptidyl tRNA, but were unable to continue the translation of mRNA. The polysomes were then heated to 37 degrees C, when they dissociated completely into subunits. Similar treatment without puromycin resulted in only partial dissociation.
Blobel et al. (Mon,) studied this question.