POLYSOME PROFILES IN AWAKE AND ESTIVATING SNAILS (OTALA-LACTEA)

The land snail, Otala lactea, like many other organisms, depresses its metabolism in the face of environmental stress. Due to the extent of this depression, a decrease in the rate of protein synthesis is likely to be involved. In an attempt to quantitate changes in the rate of pr otein synthesis during metabolic depression in O. lactea we have deter mined polysome profiles from the hepatopancreas of awake and estivatin g snails. In both estivating and awake snails, the majority of ribosom es were present as monosomes and there was no evidence of qualitative changes with the state of the snail.