Epstein-Barr virus RNA. VIII. Viral RNA in permissively infected B95-8 cells

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Abstract
Over 50 RNA species expressed by Epstein-Barr virus late in productive infection were identified. Marmoset lymphoblastoid B95-8-infected cells were induced to a relatively high level of permissive infection with the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. Polyadenylated RNA were extracted from the cell cytoplasm, separated by size on formaldehyde gels, transferred to nitrocellulose and hybridized to labeled recombinant Epstein-Barr virus DNA fragments. Comparison of RNA from induced cultures with RNA from induced cultures also treated with phosphonoacetic acid to inhibit viral DNA synthesis identifies 2 RNA classes: a persistent early class of RNA whose abundance is relatively resistant to viral DNA synthesis inhibition and a late class of RNA whose abundance is relatively sensitive to viral DNA synthesis inhibition. The persistent early and late RNA are not clustered but are intermixed and scattered through most of segments UL [unique long] and US [unique short]. The cytoplasmic polyadenylated RNA expressed during latent infection were not detected in productively infected cells, indicating that different classes of viral RNA are associated with latent and productive infection. Non-polyadenylated small RNA originally identified in cells latently infected with Epstein-Barr virus are expressed in greater abundance in productively infected cells and are part of the early RNA class.