Distinct oligonucleotide patterns of distinct influenza virus RNA's

Abstract

Three molecular-weight fractions of influenza virus RNA (SS 1 SS 2 and SS 3) were prepared as described previously (Content & Duesberg, 1971) and subjected to digestion with RNase T 1. Two-dimensional analyses of the digests by electrophoresis and homochromatography led to distinctive oligonucleotide patterns for each fraction of viral RNA. Almost all physically distinguishable large oligo-nucleotides of a given RNA species had a distinct base composition. It was concluded that each of the three fractions of viral RNA investigated contained different nucleotide sequences and presumably different genetic information. In the case of the smaller RNA fractions (SS 2 and SS 3) the presence of lesser amounts of oligonucleotides characteristic of the larger RNA fractions (SS 1 and SS 2, respectively) was observed. This was regarded as being due to contamination of the smaller RNA fractions by fragments of the larger RNA fractions. In contrast, the largest RNA species, SS 1 contained very low concentrations of oligonucleotides characteristic of the intermediate RNA SS 2. At least one large oligonucleotide occurred in most, perhaps all, species of influenza virus RNA. It was speculated that this oligonucleotide may be part of a common signal of all viral RNA's for the viral polymerase or for virus assembly.