A putative primer for the replication of cauliflower mosaic virus by reverse transcription is virion-associated

Abstract

We have isolated, from a cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) preparation, an RNA species (75 nucleotides) covalently linked to the 5′-end of the CaMV DNA fragment (sa-DNA) which is complementary to the CaMV 35 S RNA transcript 5′-end. Site-specific cleavage located a unique m 7G residue in the RNA moiety of sa-DNA suggesting that it is host cell tRNA met i sa-DNA is reminiscent of retrovirus ‘strong-stop“ DNA and is evidence fo the reverse transcription model of CaMV replication.