Transfer ribonucleic acid synthetase activity associated with avian myeloblastosis virus

Selection of methionine tRNAs by avian oncornaviruses

The free 4S RNA of avian RNA tumor viruses is greatly enriched in one of the four methionine tRNAs of the host cells, tRNA4Met. On the assumption that viral tRNAMet forms are identical to the corresponding tRNAs of mouse or chick cells, the following conclusions were drawn concerning the tRNAMet content of oncornaviruses: (1) tRNAMet species may be compartmentalised within the host cells, and the viral tRNA pool could reflect the cellular compartment in which viral maturation takes place since tRNAMet forms distribute unevenly between different fractions of a cell homogenate. (2) tRNA4Met appears to have no special role in the modulation of protein synthesis in as much as no functional difference between tRNA2Met and tRNA3Met, tRNA4Met could be demonstrated in in vitro protein synthesising systems. (3) tRNA4Met differs in nucleotide sequence from all other host cell tRNAMet forms except possibly tRNA2Met. The nucleotide sequences of two tRNAMet species, tRNA1Met and tRNA4Met, have already been determined and the sequence of another host cell tRNAMet, tRNA3Met, was derived from the analogy of its sequence to that of tRNA4Met since the two molecules differ in only 6 nucleotides out of 76. (4) Avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase has been shown to bind specifically tRNA4Met and tRNATrp in whole cell tRNA and therefore the free tRNA4Met in the virion particle may exist substantially bound to virion-associated transcriptase.

Specific binding of tryptophan transfer RNA to avian myeloblastosis virus RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (reverse transcriptase)

The ability of tryptophan tRNA (tRNATrp) to initiate reverse transcription of the 70S RNA of avian RNA tumor viruses suggested that the reverse transcriptase (RNA-dependent DNA polymerase; deoxynucleosidetriphosphate: DNA deoxynucleotidyltransferase; EC 2.7.7.7) might have a specific binding site for the tRNA. A complex of tRNATrp and the avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase has been demonstrated using chromatography on Sephadex G-100 columns. Of all the chicken tRNAs, only tRNATrp and a tRNA4Met bind to the enzyme with high enough affinity to be selected from a mixture of the chicken cell tRNAs. The ability of tRNATrp to change the sedimentation rate of the enzyme indicates that tRNATrp is not binding to a contaminant in the enzyme preparation. Treatment of the enzyme with monospecific antibody to reverse transcriptase prevented binding of tRNA as well as inhibited the DNA polymerase activity of the enzyme. The ability of reverse transcriptase to utilize tRNATrp aa a primer for DNA synthesis, therefore, appears to involve a highly specific site on the enzyme.

Chromatographic analyses of isoaccepting tRNAs from avian tumor viruses

Low-molecular-weight RNA from transforming viruses (Rous sarcoma virus-Rous-associated virus 1, Schmidt-Ruppin strain of Rous sarcoma virus, and sarcoma-B(77)), from nontransforming viruses (Rous-associated virus 1 and sarcoma-NTB(77)), and from chicken liver, chicken embryo fibroblast, and Rous sarcoma virus-Rous-associated virus 1-transformed chicken embryo fibroblast was isolated and purified. To determine if there are modified, qualitatively or quantitatively different isoaccepting species of tRNA in these avian sarcoma viruses as compared with the cell of virus origin, chicken embryo fibroblast or normal chicken liver, methionyl-, arginyl-, and lysyl-tRNA (with high amino acid acceptance activity), and aspartyl- and glutamyl-tRNA from viral-trans-formed cells (with low viral amino acid acceptance activity) were co-chromatographed on reversed phase-5 chromatography columns, and elution profiles were compared. Although in each case the elution profile between a particular viral and host cell tRNA differed quantitatively, there was no qualitative difference in the profiles of corresponding tRNAs from either transforming or nontransforming viruses examined. Minor quantitative differences in the elution profiles might be a reflection of the metabolic state of the cells, since all evidence points to acceptor activity being of host rather than viral origin. Since, with the exception of selective packaging of methionyl-tRNA (IV) species by both transforming and nontransforming viruses, no selectivity was found for isoacceptor species of other tRNAs, it seems that such preferential packaging of methionyl-tRNA (IV) species has no bearing on the event of viral transformation.

Methionine transfer ribonucleic acids of avian myeloblastosis virus

Chick-embryo cells contain four isoaccepting species of methionine transfer RNA (I-IV). One species (I) is the initiator, tRNA(f) (Met), and the others (II, III, and IV) are the donors of internal methionyl residues (tRNA(m) (Met)). Over 85% of the tRNA(Met) in purified avian myeloblastosis virus consists of one tRNA(m) (Met) species, which resembles host-cell tRNA(Met) IV with respect to chromatographic properties on RPC-5, electrophoretic mobility of the terminal methionyl-oligonucleotide, and activity in cell-free protein synthesis in response to synthetic and natural messenger RNAs. Thus, tRNA(Met) IV of avian myeloblastosis virus is structurally indistinguishable from the corresponding host-cell species, and, although not involved in initiation of viral protein synthesis, is able to function in peptide-chain elongation.

Chromatographic analyses of isoaccepting tRNAs from avian myeloblastosis virus

Avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) 4S RNA was tested for amino acid acceptor activity for 18 of the 20 amino acids. A nonrandom distribution of viral tRNAs was found compared with tRNA from normal liver or from AMV-infected leukemic myeloblasts, confirming previous reports. Methionine and proline tRNAs were considerably enriched, whereas glutamic acid, glutamine, serine, tyrosine, and valine tRNAs were markedly depleted in AMV relative to homologous cellular tRNAs. The seven AMV tRNAs with the greatest amino acid acceptance capacities, which were in order methionine, proline, lysine, arginine, histidine, isoleucine, and threonine tRNAs, were compared with homologous tRNAs from leukemic myeloblasts and liver by reversed-phase 5 chromatography. Of the 25 isoaccepting chromatographic fractions identified, no tRNA species unique to AMV was detected. Only methionyl-tRNA showed a substantial quantitative variation in isoaccepting species compared with the host cell. Thus, viral selectivity for amino acid-specific tRNAs is not, generally, paralleled by selectivity for individual isoaccepting tRNA species. Qualitative differences in arginyl- and histidyl-tRNA isoaccepting species were discovered in virus and leukemic myeloblasts compared with liver. This indicates the existence of structural differences in these tRNA species which could be related to virus replication or expression.

Transfer ribonucleic acid nucleotidyltransferase and transfer ribonucleic acid in Sendai virions

Sendai virions contain both transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) nucleotidyltransferase and its substrate, tRNA missing its CCA-OH end.