In oocytes, nontranslated maternal mRNAs are packaged by protein into messenger ribonucleoprotein particles (mRNPs) that are masked from translation by protein-RNA interactions. Proteins associated with such masked states of mRNAs are particularly abundant in amphibian oocytes. One of these mRNP proteins from Xenopus oocytes, mRNP3؉4 (also called FRG Y2a/b or p54/p56), binds to diverse mRNAs independent of their sequence and is the germ line member of the evolutionarily conserved Y box protein multigene family. Xenopus oocytes contain soluble pools of mRNP3؉4 6 S oligomers, probably dimers, and larger ϳ15 S particles containing mRNP3؉4 and additional proteins. Here we report the purification of this larger form as an ϳ320-kDa particle that contains mRNP3؉4 and nine additional polypeptides, including mRNA-binding polypeptides of 34 and 36 kDa and a doublet of 110/105 kDa that proved to be nucleolin. The particle has a protein kinase activity that phosphorylates its own mRNP3؉4, nucleolin, and a 31-kDa polypeptide component and exhibits translational inhibition in both the wheat germ extract and rabbit reticulocyte lysate systems. The presence of mRNP3؉4 and nucleolin in this large translation regulatory particle suggests that it participates in an early step of mRNP assembly and masking.The packaging of mRNA into stable nontranslated cytoplasmic messenger ribonucleoprotein particles (mRNPs) 1 is an essential mechanism of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression utilized by both male and female germ cells of vertebrates and invertebrates. Both the nontranslated state and the stability of these translationally masked mRNAs are at least partly mediated by the protein component (1-3), but little is known about the mechanism of translational regulation. Xenopus oocytes provide a rich source of masked mRNPs that can be biochemically characterized, manipulated by microinjection studies, and readily followed during early embryogenesis (4, 5). These mRNA-associated proteins inhibit the translation of -globin mRNA either in vivo following oocyte microinjection or in vitro in a wheat germ extract (WGE) translation system (6), thereby demonstrating their ability to repress translation.Recent studies of the most abundant Xenopus oocyte mRNP polypeptides have begun to address the structure and function of mRNP proteins. These polypeptides were originally named mRNP3ϩ4 (4) and subsequently p54 and p56 (5, 7, 8), pp56 and pp60 (9), or FRG Y2 (mRNP4) (10). Polypeptides mRNP3 and mRNP4 are highly related, probable pseudoalleles (8, 11), and therefore, because their simplest native form appears to be an ϳ6 S dimer (7), they are referred to as a single protein, mRNP3ϩ4. mRNP3ϩ4 particles have also been shown to be the germ line members of an evolutionarily conserved multigene family of nucleic acid-binding proteins, called the Y box proteins (12, 13), that are associated with masked mRNPs during oogenesis and spermatogenesis (8, 14 -16). In various somatic cells, a closely related Y box protein is associated with nontrans...