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Evidence for the Presence of RNA in the Purified Virions of Vaccinia Virus

College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Rutgers Medical School, Department of Microbiology, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854

ABSTRACT

Vaccinia virus, strain WR, was propagated in HeLa cells, L mouse fibroblats, or primary chicken embryo fibroblasts in the presence of [5- ³H]uridine. Carefully purified virions were found to contain significant amounts of labeled trichloroacetic acid-precipitable material which was rendered acid soluble when digested with pancreatic RNase or hydrolyzed in alkali. Controlled degradation of virions with Nonidet P-40 and 2-mercaptoethanol demonstrated that 65 to 80% of the [5- ³H]uridine-labeled molecules resided in the viral core. When the total nucleic acids were extracted from viral cores prepared from virions propagated in HeLa cells, 30 to 50% of the total incorporated [5- ³H]uridine was found in RNA; in L mouse fibroblasts, 40 to 50%; in primary chicken embryo fibroblasts, 50 to 60%. The RNA molecules do not appear to be covalently linked to the viral DNA genome but sediment in sodium dodecyl sulfate-sucrose gradients as 8 to 10S species relative to ribosomal RNA.