Abstract
Several plant and animal viral RNAs contain a tRNA like structure at their 3′ ends. In this communication we show that tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) RNA is an acceptable substrate for a specific tRNA methyltransferase. Using a crude preparation of E. coli ribothymidine (rT) forming uracil methylase and (methyl 3H) S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) as a methyl donor, 0.7 moles of methyl group is incorporated per mole of TMV RNA in 10 hours at 30°C. Upon T 2 RNAse digestion of the labeled RNA, all of the radioactivity was found to be in TMP. T 1 RNAse digestion of 3H methylated TMV RNA showed that all of the label was located in a tetranucleotide which co-migrated with authentic TpψpCpGp, an oligonucleotide characteristically found in normal cellular tRNA. The use of this specific methyl transferase reaction may provide a simple assay for the detection of tRNA like structures in large RNAs.
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