Open AccessRibonucleic Acid Synthesis in Cells Infected with Herpes Simplex Virus: Controls of Transcription and of RNA Abundance
Author(s) -
Niza Frenkel,
Bernard Roizman
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.69.9.2654
Subject(s) - rna , biology , transcription (linguistics) , dna , herpes simplex virus , messenger rna , microbiology and biotechnology , nucleic acid thermodynamics , virus , rna dependent rna polymerase , gene , virology , biochemistry , philosophy , linguistics
Analysis of the kinetics of hybridization in liquid of labeled herpes simplex virus-1 DNA and excess viral RNA revealed the following: (i ) Cells infected by herpes simplex virus-1 for 2 hr (before DNA synthesis) contain two classes of RNA molecules differing 140-fold in molar concentrations. The abundant and scarce RNAs are transcribed from 14 and 30% of the DNA, respectively. RNA extracted at 8 hr after infection (late RNA) also contains abundant and scarce classes differing 40-fold in molar concentrations; these are transcribed from 19 and 28% of viral DNA, respectively. Abundance competition hybridization tests indicate that the abundant RNA at 2 hr is a subset of the 8-hr abundant RNA. (ii ) The abundant RNAs probably specify structural proteins, as indicated by estimates of DNA template required for structural proteins and by experiments showing that 19 of 24 proteins (corresponding to 68% of genetic information for structural proteins) are already made between 0.5 and 2 hr after infection. We conclude that there are two types of transcriptional controls, i.e., on-off and abundance controls, and that the synthesis of most structural components is an early viral function.