Isolation of Polyribosomes from Yeast During Sporulation and Vegetative Growth

Exponentially growing and sporulating cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been subjected to a variety of conditions which mechanically disrupt the cell in an effort to establish conditions which permit the recovery of intact polyribosomes. Grinding cells for 10 s with glass beads in a Bronwill cell homogenizer was sufficiently gentle to yield a polyribosome content in exponentially growing cells which was similar to values obtained from yeast spheroplasts. Polyribosome patterns in sporulating yeast were similar to those from exponentially growing cells. This technique is fast, reproducible over a wide range of cell concentrations, and eliminates the need to make spheroplasts to recover intact polyribosomes.