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Relationship Between the Ribonucleic Acid-Synthesizing Capacity of Ultraviolet-Irradiated Newcastle Disease Virus and Its Ability to Induce Interferon

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

ABSTRACT

Ultraviolet (UV)-irradiated Newcastle disease virus which has lost its infectivity but has the capacity to induce interferon also has the capacity to induce ribonucleic acid (RNA) synthesis both in vitro and early in infection in vivo. With large doses of UV irradiation, RNA-synthesizing capacity and interferon-inducing capacity are lost in parallel. Limited amounts of base-paired RNA associated with a transcriptive intermediate are involved in this RNA synthesis. These findings suggest the possibility that the single-stranded RNA of the UV-irradiated virus induces interferon by serving as a template for the synthesis of base-paired RNA. UV irradiation of the virus breaks down viral RNA but at a rate which is too slow to be a major cause of the loss of RNA-synthesizing capacity. Evidence is presented which suggests that less of the template RNA of the UV-irradiated virus is copied and that the product which is synthesized is smaller than that synthesized by nonirradiated virus.

¹ On leave of absence from Universidad Central de Venezuela.