ASYMMETRIC SYNTHESIS OF RNA IN VITRO: DEPENDENCE ON DNA CONTINUITY AND CONFORMATION

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Abstract
Crude supernatant fractions of B. megatherium stimulate a DNA-dependent RNA synthesis in vitro that is strikingly restrictive and asymmetric. When the template is phase [alpha]DNA, the product of the in vitro synthesis behaves like the RNA made (in vivo) in phage [alpha]-infected B. megatherium, in its interactions with total [alpha]DNA and the light strand of [alpha]DNA, and is unlike the "complementary" symmetric product that has previously been formed with purified RNA polymerase. The ability of [alpha]DNA to serve as a template for this asymmetric synthesis is dependent upon its native conformation but does not depend upon the continuity of the phage chromosome.