Complexes of Polylysine with Infectious Viral RNA
Abstract
An earlier report showed that polylysine, a synthetic polyamino acid of high molecular weight, reversibly 'masked' the infectivity of the infectious ribonucleic acids (IRNA) of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) and eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus and protected the IRNA against inactivation by pancreatic ribonuclease. Results of further studies reported here indicate more directly that the polylysine and RNA form some kind of strong nucleoprotein-type complex. In sucrose gradient centrifugation studies, IRNA alone and complexed polylysine-IRNA had different sedimentation patterns. Data from chromatographic studies with complexed nucleic acids indicated that the polylysine and RNA were firmly bound. Results from investigations that employed other polylysine preparations of different molecular weights, 3,000 to 100,000, whowed that polylysine of low molecular weight (3,000) did not block infectivity or protect IRNA against nuclease inactivation. These results suggest that polylysine-IRNA complexes in which infectivity is masked may have a different physical configuration from that of IRNA alone.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0866097
Entities
People
- Jane B. Idoine
- Ralph F. Wachter
- Richard D. Costlow