Complementary DNA Cloning of Genomic RNA in Orchid Strain of Tobacco Mosaic Virus

Viral RNA was extracted from a purified orchid strain of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV-O) from Cymbidium "Grace Kelly". Polyadenylated viral RNAs were primed with Not I-oligo (dT) primer-adapter. First-strand cDNAs were reversely transcribed by Moloney murine leukaemia virus reverse transcriptase (RNAse H-), and then second-strand cDNAs were synthesized by RNase H and DNA polymerase I. The resulting double-stranded cDNAs were ligated into pSPORT1 vector and transformed into competent E. coli strain JM109 cells. The size of cDNAs within the recombinant plasmids was ranging from 0.9 to 3.9 kb. Among the selected clones, pTMO-0205 and -0210 covered the 3' half and the 5' half of the viral genomic RNA, respectively, which were covering more than 99% of the viral genemo size based on sequencing analysis. Two cDNA fragments which were 3.1 kb BamHI and NotI fragement released from pTMO-0.205 and 3.3 kb SalI and BamHI fragment released from pTMO-0210 were ligated with T4 DNA ligase. The clone was almost entire length, lacking only 31 nucleotides from the 5' terminus based on the sequencing result. This method was shown to be efficiently applicable to other plant viral gnomic RNA for the construction of cDNA.n of cDNA.