SYNTHESIS OF RNA IN L CELLS INFECTED WITH MENGO VIRUS

KINETICS OF INCORPORATION OF URIDINE-C14 INTO L CELL RNA

Five components have been isolated from L cells by a combination of phenol extraction procedures and sedimentation analysis through sucrose gradients. These components are identified by their sedimentation rates. The 50S and 40S components are derived from the nucleus, the 32S and 18S from ribosomal RNA, and the 4S fraction is the soluble RNA of the cell. L cells were supplied with uridine-C(14) under steady-state conditions and the rate of uptake of C(14) into each component was measured. Analysis of the results suggests that the delay in entry of C(14) into ribosomal RNA is occasioned by two sequential precursors and that 50S and 40S RNA meet the kinetic requirements for these precursors. 4S RNA seems to contain two components that label at different rates.

INTRACELLULAR FATE OF MENGO VIRUS RIBONUCLEIC ACID

Homma, M. (The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pa.), and A. F. Graham. Intracellular fate of Mengo virus ribonucleic acid. J. Bacteriol. 89:64-73. 1965.-P(32)-labeled, purified preparations of Mengo virus adsorbed rapidly and irreversibly to L cells maintained in suspension cultures. At intervals after adsorption of labeled virus, the total ribonucleic acid (RNA) of infected cells was extracted by a phenol technique. Infectivity titrations on this RNA showed that it retained its full biological activity during the early part of the eclipse period. Sucrose gradient sedimentation analyses showed also that this RNA lost none of its structural integrity throughout the eclipse period. No evidence was found for a double-stranded structure involving parental RNA. When cells infected with P(32)-labeled virus were broken open during the first 7 hr after infection, no more than 20% of the parental RNA could be digested with ribonuclease. Electron microscopy indicated that only one particle in five of the purified viral populations was infectious. It is suggested that only one of five adsorbed virus particles was uncoated and that its RNA remained in the cell in an undegraded form during the eclipse period. The other adsorbed particles were not uncoated and took no part in the process of infection. The maximal transfer of parental RNA to progeny virus was 4.5%.

Transcription and transport of virus-specific ribonucleic acids in African green monkey kidney cells abortively infected with type 2 adenovirus

The techniques of deoxyribonucleic acid-ribonucleic acid (DNA-RNA) hybridization and immunological precipitation were used to compare the synthesis of adenovirus-specific macromolecules in African green monkey kidney (AGMK) cells infected with adenovirus, an abortive infection, and coinfected with both adenovirus and simian virus 40 (SV40), which renders the cells permissive for adenovirus replication. When viral protein synthesis was proceeding at its maximum rate, the incorporation of (14)C-amino acids into adenovirus structural proteins was about 90 times greater in the doubly infected cells than in cells infected only with adenovirus. However, the rates of synthesis of virus-specific ribonucleic acid appeared to be comparable in the two infections at all times measured. A time-dependent increase in the rate of RNA synthesis observed late in the abortive infection was dependent upon the prior replication of viral DNA. Moreover, all virus-specific RNA species that are normally made late in a productive adenovirus infection (i.e., the true late and class II early RNA species) were also detected in the abortive infection. Adenovirus-specific RNA was detected by molecular hybridization in both the cytoplasm and nuclei of abortively infected cells. Comparable amounts of viral RNA were found in the cytoplasmic fractions of AGMK cells infected either with adenovirus or with both adenovirus and SV40. The results of hybridization-inhibition experiments clearly showed that there was a class of virus-specific RNA molecules, representing about 30% of the total, in the nucleus that was not transported to the cytoplasm. This class of RNA was also identified in similar amounts in productively infected human KB cells. The difference in the abilities of cytoplasmic and nuclear RNA to inhibit the hybridization of virus-specific RNA from whole cells was shown not to be due to a difference in the molecular size of the RNA species from the two cell fractions or to the specific loss of a cytoplasmic species during RNA extraction procedures.

Synthesis of virus-specific ribonucleic acid in KB cells infected with type 2 adenovirus

By using the technique of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-ribonucleic acid (RNA) hybridization, virus-specific RNA (cRNA) was detected 6 hr after infection in preparations of total RNA from cells infected with type 2 adenovirus in the presence of 2 mum 5-fluorodeoxyuridine. In the absence of 5-fluorodeoxyuridine, there was a continuous increase in the incorporation of (3)H-uridine into viral cRNA until 20 hr after infection, at which time approximately 40% of the (3)H-uridine entering RNA was found in virus-specific RNA. When RNA was prepared from polyribosome fractions obtained from cytoplasmic extracts of infected cells, virus-directed transcription was detected at 3 hr after infection (i.e., 3 to 4 hr before the initiation of viral DNA synthesis). Viral cRNA species synthesized at different times after infection were compared by the technique of DNA-RNA hybridization-inhibition ("presaturation" hybridization-competition). Three hybridization-inhibition techniques were compared. The techniques differed in the manner in which the DNA-RNA complex was isolated after the first hybridization reaction. Depending on the procedure employed, various degrees of inhibition were measured. The variation could be essentially eliminated if prior to hybridization the inhibitory RNA species were alkali-degraded to a uniform size of about 4S. Undegraded RNA could be used if the DNA-RNA complex was isolated by using a procedure involving rigorous washing (preferably including ribonuclease treatment) before the second hybridization with labeled RNA. When a rigorous hybridization-inhibition procedure was used, three classes of virus-specific RNA species could be distinguished: (i) early RNA class I whose synthesis began prior to viral DNA replication and stopped at some time after the initiation of viral DNA replication-it comprised about 70% of the early RNA species and was apparently degraded by 18 hr after infection; (ii) early RNA class II whose synthesis began prior to viral DNA replication and apparently continued at an enhanced rate late in infection; and (iii) late RNA whose synthesis began after the initiation of viral DNA synthesis.

Synthesis of Saint Louis encephalitis virus ribonucleic acid in BHK-21-13 cells

Infection of baby hamster kidney cells (BHK-21/13) with Saint Louis encephalitis (SLE) virus depressed the rate of protein and ribonucleic acid (RNA) synthesis until viral RNA synthesis began 6 hr postinfection (PI). Virus-directed RNA synthesis was subsequently inhibited until 12 hr PI when virion maturation began. The rate of protein synthesis reached a peak 6 hr PI and was subsequently depressed until just before the onset of virion maturation. Density gradient analysis of phenol-extracted RNA from actinomycin-treated infected cells indicated that, at 6 to 8 hr and again at 12 to 20 hr PI, three species of viral-specific RNA were synthesized. The most rapid sedimenting form (43S) was ribonuclease-sensitive and had a base composition similar to the RNA isolated from mature virions. The 20S RNA species was ribonuclease-resistant and had a sedimentation coefficient and base composition similar to the replicative form associated with other arbovirus infections. The 26S RNA was ribonuclease-resistant (0.2 mug/ml, 0.1 m NaCl, 25 C, 30 min) and had a nucleotide base composition closer to the 20S form than to the values for 43S RNA. Five-minute pulse labeling of infected cultures during the period viral RNA synthesis was maximal resulted in labeling of only the 20S to 22S RNA fractions. With pulse-labeling periods of 10 min, both the 20S and 26S RNA species were radioactive. Periods of radioactive labeling of as long as 15 min were required before the 43S form was radioactively labeled. These results suggest that the 20S and 26S RNA may be intermediate forms in the synthesis of 43S viral RNA.

Relationship between deoxyribonucleic acid-like ribonucleic acid synthesis and inhibition of host protein synthesis in type 5 adenovirus-infected KB cells

Previous results have shown that infection of KB cells with type 5 adenovirus elicits the inhibition of host protein synthesis. In an attempt to determine whether inhibition is caused by a block in the transcription of host deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the rate of synthesis of host DNA-like ribonucleic acid (D-RNA) was compared with the rate of host protein synthesis at various times after infection. The rate of host D-RNA synthesis was determined by measuring the rate of incorporation of (3)H-uridine into species of ribonucleic acid which could hybridize specifically with KB cell DNA. The rate of host protein synthesis was determined by measuring the rate of incorporation of (14)C-valine into species of protein which could not be precipitated by antiserum directed against viral antigens. The results obtained suggest that the primary event producing inhibition of host protein synthesis is not the inhibition of transcription of host DNA. Synthesis of viral D-RNA in type 5 adenovirus-infected KB cells was next examined. Synthesis was first detected 8 to 10 hr after infection, and it could not be detected if viral DNA synthesis was blocked. At those times when inhibition of host protein synthesis was evident, the rate of synthesis of viral D-RNA appeared to exceed that of KB cell D-RNA.

Destruction of L cells by Mengo virus: use of interferon to study the mechanism

Interferon, when added to L cells, inhibited the synthesis of infectious Mengo viral ribonucleic acid, hemagglutinins, and infectious virus by 85 to 95%. Serum-blocking antigens were also reduced by the action of interferon, but threefold excess amounts of these antigens accumulated in interferon-treated cultures above the amounts expected for the quantity of infectious virus that was produced in these cultures. Radioautographic analysis showed that 28 to 36% of the cells of an interferon-treated population synthesized viral ribonucleic acid and 36 to 47% produced viral antigens as determined by an immunofluorescence technique. Despite the reductions in synthesis of viral components, all cells in an interferon-treated culture underwent cytopathic effects at the same time as cells in infected cultures which had not been treated with interferon. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that the cell destruction which results from the infection of L cells with Mengo virus is due to a protein which is coded for by the virus but is not a component of the mature virion.

Replication of mengovirus. II. General properties of the viral-induced ribonucleic acid polymerase

Plagemann, Peter G. W. (Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio), and H. Earle Swim. Replication of mengovirus. II. General properties of the viral-induced ribonucleic acid polymerase. J. Bacteriol. 91:2327-2332. 1966.-Mengovirus induces the appearance of a ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymerase activity in Novikoff hepatoma cells which is readily distinguished from the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-dependent RNA polymerase since it is not inhibited by actinomycin D or deoxyribonuclease, but is inhibited by ammonium sulfate, and is stable at -17 C. The incorporation of uridine into RNA by infected cells in the presence of actinomycin D does not reflect the viral polymerase activity as measured in cell-free preparations. The viral-induced RNA polymerase is produced in a biphasic fashion. Puromycin inhibits the production of viral polymerase, and in its presence the enzyme appears to be unstable between 4 and 6 hr. Puromycin also prevents the secondary rise in polymerase which begins at the end of replicative cycle. Under these conditions, however, the polymerase appears to be stable. The overall data indicated that some unspecified process is responsible for the apparent instability of viral-induced RNA polymerase between 4 and 6 hr and that it becomes inoperative toward the end of the replicative cycle.

Replication of mengovirus. I. Effect on synthesis of macromolecules by host cell

Plagemann, Peter G. W. (Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio), and H. Earle Swim. Replication of mengovirus. I. Effect on synthesis of macromolecules by host cell. J. Bacteriol. 91:2317-2326. 1966.-The replication of mengovirus was studied in two strains of Novikoff (rat) hepatoma cells propagated in vitro. The replicative cycle in both strains required 6.5 to 7 hr. Infection resulted in a marked depression of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein synthesis by strain N1S1-63. Inhibition of RNA synthesis was reflected by a decrease in the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-dependent RNA polymerase activity of isolated nuclei. Mengovirus had no effect on either protein or RNA synthesis or on the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity of a second strain, N1S1-67. The time course of viral-induced synthesis of RNA by cells was studied in cells treated with actinomycin D. It was first detectable between 2.5 and 3 hr after infection and continued until 6.5 to 7 hr. The formation of mature virus was estimated biochemically by measuring the amount of RNA synthesized as a result of viral infection which was resistant to degradation by ribonuclease in the presence of deoxycholate. Approximately 70% of the deoxycholate-ribonuclease-resistant RNA was located in mature virus, and the remainder was double-stranded. The formation of mature virus began about 45 min after viral-directed (actinomycin-resistant) synthesis of RNA was detectable in the cell, and only about 18 to 20% of the total RNA synthesized was incorporated into virus. Release of virus from cells began about 1 hr after maturation was first detectable. Release of virus from cells was accompanied by a loss of a large proportion of their cytoplasmic RNA and protein.

Differential inhibitory effects of actinomycin D among strains of poliovirus

Schaffer, Frederick L. (University of California, Berkeley), and Marjorie Gordon. Differential inhibitory effects of actinomycin D among strains of poliovirus. J. Bacteriol. 91:2309-2316. 1966.-Actinomycin D exerted a differential effect on the ability of strains of poliovirus to replicate in HeLa cells. LSc-2ab was studied as an example of a strain markedly inhibited by actinomycin; MEF(1) served as a control strain with minimal inhibition. The effect was noted at an actinomycin concentration of 0.1 mug/ml, but 2.5 mug/ml was used for most studies. Variability in the effect was attributed, in part, to physiological factors. Actinomycin was effective when present during the first 2 hr of LSc infection, but had little effect if present at later times. It did not block adsorption or initiation of ecilpse. It did block synthesis of ribonucleic acid in LSc-infected cells. Several possible modes of action are discussed, the most attractive being that actinomycin blocks synthesis of some cell component, the concentration of which is more critical for replication of some poliovirus strains than others.

Effect of interferon on polymerization of single-stranded and double-stranded mengovirus ribonucleic acid

Gordon, Irving (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), Sara S. Chenault, Douglas Stevenson, and Jean D. Acton. Effect of interferon on polymerization of single-stranded and double-stranded mengovirus ribonucleic acid. J. Bacteriol. 91:1230-1238. 1966.-The effect of interferon on actinomycin-resistant mengovirus ribonucleic acid (RNA) replication in L cells was investigated to determine whether defective or partially polymerized RNA products were made and whether synthesis of any specific class of virus RNA was prevented. RNA labeled with uridine-C(14) was extracted in hot and cold phenol and analyzed by zonal sucrose density centrifugation. Both single- and double-stranded infectious RNA peaks were identified. Interferon treatment caused almost complete depression of uridine-C(14) incorporation throughout linear sucrose gradients except in the 4S region, and no infectivity was detectable in any fraction. These inhibitory effects are attributable to the action of interferon, because they were reversed when cultures were treated with actinomycin D simultaneously with interferon. The results, with those of other investigators, indicate that the step at which interferon interrupts virus multiplication is between the events immediately after uncoating and the formation of template "minus" strands; under the conditions of our experiments, no partially polymerized virus RNA products were made.

Synthesis of reovirus ribonucleic acid in L cells

Kudo, Hajime (The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia, Pa.), and A. F. Graham. Synthesis of reovirus ribonucleic acid in L cells. J. Bacteriol. 90:936-945. 1965.-There is no inhibition of protein or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis in L cells infected with reovirus until the time that new virus starts to form about 8 hr after infection. At this time, both protein synthesis and DNA synthesis commence to be inhibited. Neither the synthesis of ribosomal ribonucleic acid (RNA) nor that of the rapidly labeled RNA of the cell nucleus is inhibited before 10 hr after infection. Actinomycin at a concentration of 0.5 mug/ml does not inhibit the formation of reovirus, although higher concentrations of the antibiotic do so. Pulse-labeling experiments with uridine-C(14) carried out in the presence of 0.5 mug/ml of actinomycin show that, at 6 to 8 hr after infection, two species of virus-specific RNA begin to form and increase in quantity as time goes on. One species is sensitive to ribonuclease action and the other is very resistant. The latter RNA is probably double-stranded viral progeny RNA, and it constitutes approximately 40% of the RNA formed up to 16 hr after infection. The function of the ribonuclease-sensitive RNA is not yet known. Synthesis of both species of RNA is inhibited by 5 mug/ml of actinomycin added at early times after infection. Added 6 to 8 hr after infection, when virus-specific RNA has already commenced to form, 5 mug/ml of actinomycin no longer inhibit the formation of either species of RNA.