Estimates of Molecular Weights of Nepovirus RNA Species by Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis under Denaturing Conditions

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Abstract
Summary The mol. wt. of the RNA components of twelve nepoviruses were estimated by electrophoresis at 60 °C in 2.0% polyacrylamide gels containing 8 m-urea. This method gave estimates of RNA mol. wt. that were very reproducible and those for RNA-2 are considered more accurate than values published hitherto. Most of the viruses fell into one of three clusters with RNA-2 mol. wt. of about 1.45 × 106, 1.65 × 106 and 2.0 × 106. For all the viruses, the estimates for RNA-1 (2.08 to 2.19 × 106) were considerably lower than previously published values but may not be more accurate. Three viruses had additional RNA components (RNA-3) with mol. wt. 0.4 to 0.5 × 106. The implications of these findings for the packaging of the RNA molecules and for classification of the viruses is discussed.