RESTRICTION OF IN VIVO GENETIC TRANSCRIPTION TO ONE OF THE COMPLEMENTARY STRANDS OF DNA

Abstract
The experi-ments described were designed to determine whether in vivo transcription of genetic information involves only one or both strands of the DNA-duplex. The experiments used DNA from the single-stranded virus o X174 and its purified replicating form which contains the original strand and its complement. Appropriate hybridization tests with these two DNA preparations and the RNA message fraction were carried out. The results of the hybridization tests and of the base composition of the RNA complex revealed the presence of RNA complementary to only one of the two strands of the RF-duplex. The data are consistent with the conclusion that only one of the two complements in a DNA duplex is either the principal or sole source of translatable genetic information. Among other conclusions, these results imply that transcribable genetic inversions resulting in non-deletion phenotypes are not to be expected within a continuous DNA duplex structure.

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