Coronavirus JHM: Characterization of Intracellular Viral RNA

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Abstract
After infection of Sac(-) cells with the murine coronavirus JHM the synthesis of 7 major and 2 minor RNA species was induced. These RNA species were polyadenylated and single-stranded. MW of these species was estimated by electrophoresis in agarose gels containing methylmercury hydroxide. The values for the major species were 6.67 .times. 106 for RNA of genome size (RNA 1), 3.42 .times. 106 for RNA 2, 2.76 .times. 106 for RNA 3, 1.35 .times. 106 for RNA 4, 1.19 .times. 106 for RNA 5, 0.93 .times. 106 for RNA 6 and 0.62 .times. 106 for RNA 7. The minor species have a size of 4.7 .times. 106 (RNA a) and 1.5 .times. 106 (RNA b). The same number of species were found by electrophoresis after denaturation with glyoxal-dimethyl sulfoxide. No gross difference in the number of RNA species and the amount of each species was found between total cytoplasmic RNA, polyadenylated cytoplasmic RNA and RNA extracted from pelleted polysomes.