Summary
An isotope dilution assay has been devised for the determination of TMV RNA (plus strands) and its complementary RNA strands (minus strands). The assay is based on the specific annealing between these two RNA species. The content of the two types of viral RNA strands in leaves at different times after infection has been studied by means of the assay.
Minus strands were rapidly formed at early stages of infection, whereafter they remained at a constant level throughout the rapid phase of TMV synthesis. The ratio of plus to minus strands increased throughout this period reaching values of about 100 plus strands to one minus strand towards the end of the period. At early stages of infection more multi-stranded (RI) than double-stranded (RF) RNA molecules were found. Later the minus strands were about equally distributed between these two forms of RNA.
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Communicated by G. Melchers
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Kielland-Brandt, M.C., Nilsson-Tillgren, T. Studies on the biosynthesis of TMV. Molec. Gen. Genet. 121, 229–238 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00267050
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00267050