期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1974
卷号：71
期号：11
页码：4541-4545
DOI：10.1073/pnas.71.11.4541
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The structure and molecular weight of the 60-70S RNA complex and the 30-40S RNA species of Rous sarcoma virus were analyzed in an electron microscope after treatment of the RNAs with the bacteriophage T4 gene-32 protein to stretch out the RNA strands. Although all RNA preparations treated with gene-32 protein showed considerable heterogeneity in length, a significant fraction of the RNA retained its original sedimentation coefficient after treatment to allow the following conclusions to be made: The 30-40S RNA was confirmed to be a linear polynucleotide with a molecular weight of about 3 x 106. The 60-70S RNA exhibited a network structure with a molecular weight predominantly of about 6 x 106. Therefore, the subunit hypothesis for the 60-70S RNA is confirmed. A model for the structure and molecular weight of the 60-70S RNA postulates that the complex consists of two 30-40S RNA subunits held together at many points. This model elucidates the biological observation that the infectivity of RNA tumor viruses is proportional to the amount of 30-40S RNA in a virus preparation and not to the amount of 60-70S RNA.
关键词：RNA subunits ; bacteriophage T4 gene-32 protein ; RNA secondary structure ; RNA tumor virus infectivity ; electron microscopy of RNA
