Correlation between replication and degradation of cellular DNA in polyoma virus-infected cells

Abstract

Although approximately only 20% of the cells in polyoma virus-infected mouse embryo cultures synthesize viral antigen, approximately 93% of the cells synthesize DNA at some time during the infective process. The synthesis of DNA is not synchronized and in some of the cells in the cultures there is a delay in the onset of DNA synthesis. This delay is dependent upon the stage of the growth cycle of the cell at the time of infection. In all the cells in the infected cultures, the DNA is degraded during the later stages of the infective process and elutes from methylated albumin kieselguhr columns in a position characteristic of DNA with a molecular weight approximately that of viral DNA; this degradation occurs only after the DNA has replicated in the infected cells.