Rabies virus polysomes contained two sizes of messenger RNAs, one of which had a sedimentation value of 30S and another which sedimented at 12 to 16S.
RNA extracted from infected cultures contained virion-size
RNA, 42S, as well as 30S and 12 to 16S
RNA species. Hybridization studies indicated that the 30S and 12 to 16S RNAs had nucleotide sequences which were complementary to virion
RNA.
RNA.
RNA isolated from virus polysomes contained adenylate-rich sequences which were heterogeneous in size and were determined to be about 100 to 250
nucleotides in length on the basis of their migration rates in
polyacrylamide gels.
Acid-
urea agarose gel electrophoresis established that the 30S
RNA material was composed of a single
RNA species (mol. wt. greater than or equal to 1.65 X 10(6)), whereas the 12 to 16S material could be resolved into at least four distinct species whose mol. wt. ranged from 0.28 to 0.87 X 10(6). When labelled
rabies-infected cell RNAs, which were purified by
oligo(dT)-cellulose chromatography, were annealed to excess unlabelled virus RNA, digested with
ribonuclease T2 and the
RNA duplex molecules analysed by
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, five duplexes could be separated. The mol. wt. of these duplexes were estimated to be 3.2, 1.4, 0.96, 0.55 and 0.39 X 10(6), when compared to the known mol. wt. of
vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)
RNA duplexes. This study suggests that the replicative processes of rabies virus are very similar to VSV and that rabies virus
proteins are probably translated from smaller than virion-size RNAs.