Genome complexities of the three mRNA species of snowshoe hare bunyavirus and in vitro translation of S mRNA to viral N polypeptide

Abstract

The genome complexities of the principal intracellular viral complementary RNA species of the snowshoe hare bunyavirus have been analyzed by duplex analyses involving hybridization of complementary RNA to individual 32P-labeled viral RNA species (large, L; medium, M; and small, S), recovery of nuclease-resistant duplexes, and determination of the oligonucleotide fingerprints of the protected 32P-labeled viral sequences. The result for the M RNA (which codes for the glycoproteins G1 and G2; J. R. Gentsch and D. H. L. Bishop, J. Virol. 30:767-770, 1979) indicates that there is a single polycistronic M mRNA. Similar results were obtained for the L and S RNA species. In vitro translation studies with the S complementary RNA species of snowshoe hare virus as well as melted purified S duplexes substantiate earlier genetic and molecular studies (J. R. Gentsch and D. H. L. Bishop, J. Virol. 28:417-419, 1978; J. Gentsch, D. H. L. Bishop, and J. F. Obijeski, J. Gen. Virol. 34-257-268, 1977), which indicate that S mRNA codes for the virion nucleocapsid protein N.