Mengovirus replication: I. Conservation of virus RNA

Abstract

Suspension cultures of L cells were grown in medium containing actinomycin and were infected with Mengovirus whose RNA was labeled with tritium. The complexes were labeled with P32O4 at intervals throughout infection, and their RNA was extracted and fractionated on sucrose density gradients. The Mengovirus genome was conserved throughout infection, as evidenced by the preservation both of the biological and of the physical integrity of the input virus RNA. No ribonuclease-resistant structures indicative of double-stranded RNA replicative intermediates were observed under conditions in which naturally occurring RNA duplexes were highly stable.