The Journal of cell biology
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The polysomes involved in albumin and serine dehydratase synthesis were identified and localized by the binding to rat liver polysomes of anti-rat serum albumin and anti-serine dehydratase [(125)I]Fab dimer and monomer. Techniques were developed for the isolation of undegraded free and membrane-bound polysomes and for the preparation of [(125)I]Fab monomers and dimers from the IgG obtained from the antisera to the two proteins, rat serum albumin and serine dehydratase. The distribution of anti-rat serum albumin [(125)I]Fab dimer in the polysome profile is in accordance with the size of polysomes that are expected to be synthesizing albumin. ⋯ When these latter polysomes are isolated, even after the addition of crude and purified serine dehydratase, no reaction with anti-serine dehydratase-Fab fragments could be demonstrated. These results indicate that the reaction of the Fab fragments are specific for polysomes that synthesize rat serum albumin or rat liver serine dehydratase. Furthermore, they demonstrate that even with this high degree of specificity, some polysomes in the fraction labeled "free" are in the process of synthesizing rat serum albumin while bound polysomes to a significant, if not major, degree are the site of the synthesis of rat liver serine dehydratase.