This study shows an overall analysis of gene expression during the cell cycle in synchronous suspension cultures of Catharanthus roseus cells. First, the cellular cytoplasmic proteins were fractionated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and visualized by staining with silver. Seventeen polypeptides showed qualitative or quantitafive changes during the cell cycle. Second, the rates of synthesis of cytoplasmic proteins were also investigated by autoradiography by labeling cells with [S]methionine at each phase of the cell cycle. The rates of synthesis of 13 polypeptides were found to vary during the cell cycle. The silverstained electrophoretic pattem of proteins in the G2 phase in particular showed characteristic changes in levels of polypeptides, while the rates of synthesis of polypeptides synthesized during the G2 phase did not show such phase-specific changes.This result suggests that posttranslational processing of polypeptides occurs during or prior to the G2 phase. In the G1 and S phases and during cytokinesis, several other polypeptides were specifically synthesized. Finally, the variation of mRNAs was analyzed from the autoradiograms of In vitro translafton products of poly(A)+ RNA isolated at each phase. Three poly(A)+ RNAs increased in amount from the GI to the S phase and one poly (A)+ RNA increased preferentially from the G2 phase to cytokinesis.The cell cycle in eukaryotes consists of an ordered sequence of events, which include DNA synthesis, replication of organelles, and mitosis, and which are controlled by the ordered expression of genes. Many studies have been undertaken to examine the changes in protein patterns through which the sequential action of genes during the cell cycle is reflected, and to demonstrate that genes involved in cell proliferation are expressed transiently during the cell cycle. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis has revealed the presence of several phase-specific proteins in mammalian cells which appear in the G2 phase (1) or which are synthesized in the S phase (10) and the G2/M phase (41). There are also reports (8,15,29) that no unique proteins are synthesized during the cell cycle in HeLa cells and yeast.