Double-Stranded Regions in Heterogeneous Nuclear RNA from Hela Cells

Heterogeneous nuclear RNA from HeLa cells contains double-stranded regions that arise by base pairing of complementary sequences that exist as parts of the same molecule (intramolecular base pairing). When denatured, the RNA sequences that form the double-stranded regions hybridize rapidly to HeLa cell DNA, suggesting that they are transcribed from reiterated sites in the genome. The messenger RNA does not contain the same class or amount of double-stranded RNA regions found in heterogeneous nuclear RNA.