Cloning of DNA complementary to the measles virus mRNA encoding nucleocapsid protein.

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Abstract
Double-stranded c[complementary]DNA synthesized from total poly(A)-containing mRNA, extracted from monkey cells infected with measles virus, was inserted into the Pst cleavage site of Escherichia coli plasmid pBR322 and cloned. A clone containing measles virus DNA sequences was identified by hybridization to a measles virus-specific 32P-labeled cDNA probe prepared from the mRNA of measles virus-infected [African green monkey kidney CV-1] cells. Cellular sequences in the probe were neutralized by prehybridization with an excess of unlabeled mRNA from uninfected monkey cells. The insert of cloned cDNA isolated contains 1420 base pairs, as shown by agarose gel electrophoresis and EM. The size of the mRNA complementary to this cloned cDNA is 1750 nucleotides, as determined by the reverse Southern technique. The cloned DNA fragment was further identified as the reverse transcript of the mRNA coding for the nucleocapsid protein of measles virus on the basis that the major cell-free translation product of mRNA selected by hybridization to the cloned DNA comigrated with the nucleocapsid protein and was immunoprecipitated by measles virus-specific antibodies. Subsequently, the cloned DNA was used to detect specific measles virus sequences in the poly(A)-RNA extracted from brain autopsy material from a patient with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. The cloned DNA can thus be used as a probe to study the structure and expression of the measles genome, and in particular, to study diseases of the CNS in which persistent infection with measles virus was implicated.