The effects of arginine starvation on macromolecular synthesis in infection with type 2 adenovirus: I. Synthesis and utilization of structural proteins

Abstract

Although arginine deprivation inhibits the production of infectious type 2 adenovirus in KB cells, all the major structural proteins can be detected in acrylamide gel electropherograms of infected cell material, including those peptides known to be rich in arginine. However, these viral proteins synthesized during arginine deprivation are largely unused in the assembly of infectious virions which occurs after arginine is restored. With the use of a DNA inhibitor (FdUrd) and appropriate periods of arginine starvation, it can be shown that the arginine-dependent function does not occur prior to DNA synthesis. The effects of restoring arginine at intervals late in the latent period indicate that the essential function can take place within 3–4 hr prior to the appearance of mature virions, i.e., during late protein synthesis.