• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.106-112
• /
• 1988

We have examined the structures and cellular distributions of the SV40 late RNAs present in monkey cells at late times after infection. One particular RNA species, spliced at residue 373(373-RNA), was found to be as abundant as the major late 16S RNAs. This result was unexpected since previous reports showed that the molecular ratio of the 373-spliced 19S RNA to 16S RNA is approximately 0.1 among either cytoplasmic polyadenylated or polysomal viral RNAs. Both sedimentation and electrophoretic analysis indicated that the 373-RNA was approximately 16S to 19S in size. Therefore, it was not a splicing intermediate or the product of premature termination of transcription within the late leader region. Whereas most SV40 late 16S RNA is polyadenylated and located in the cytoplasm, the majority of 373-RNA was found to lack poly A, and be located in the nucleus.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 1989

The locations of 5' ends as well as the splicing pattern of viral poly A(-) 19S RNA from monkey cells infected with SV40 were determined by a modification of primer extension method. The 5' end of this RNA mapped at the major cap site at nucleotide residue 325, used most frequently by SV40 late RNAs. The intron from nt.373 to nt.558 was removed as the ordinary cytoplasmic poly A(+) 19S RNA. The 3'end of this RNA was very heterogeneous and distributed over 1 kb upstream of polyadenylation site, as determined by S1 nuclease mapping. The reason for this normally initiated and spliced RNA to accumulate in the nucleus was investigated. In order to test whether the presence of unused 3' splice region on this RNA caused such subcellular distribution, cells were transfected with SV40 mutant KNA containing deletion around 3' splice site. The RNA deleted of 3' splice region accumulated mainly in the cytoplasm. This accumulation did not result from the increased stability of the RNA due to the deletion, since the wild type and mutant RNAs exhibited similar half lives after chase with actinomycin D. Therefore it is likely that the 19S spliced RNA is hindered from being transported into the cytoplasm due to some pre-splicing complexes formed at the unused 3' splice site.