Direct introduction and transient expression of capped and non-capped RNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We report the introduction of functional RNA molecules into yeast spheroplasts. Plasmids containing the firefly luciferase coding region were transcribed to yield RNAs suitable for introduction into yeast cells and direct assay of their translation products. The 5' noncoding regions of the RNAs were derived either from the 5' noncoding regions of firefly luciferase, poliovirus, or yeast viruslike-particle (VLP) L-A or Ml RNAs. Capped and noncapped mRNAs were made by T7 RNA polymerasedirected transcription and introduced into yeast spheroplasts. The peak time of luciferase transient expression from introduced RNAs was 2 - 4 h after their