Translation of alfalfa mosaic virus RNA effect of polyamines

Abstract

Alfalfa Mosaic Virus (AMV) is a multicomponent vinis [l] consisted essentially by four nucleoprotein particles, though other minor components exist of various sizes [2]. Each of the major components contains its own species of RNA [3] with sedimentation coefficients of 24S, 2OS, 17s and 12s and corresponding mol. wts. of approx. 1.3 X 1 06, 1.0X 106,0.7X lo6 and0.33X lo6 [4].The 12s RNA is not needed for infectivity which can be obtained by inoculation of the mixture of other heavier RNAs and the coat protein [3,5]. Nevertheless, the 12s RNA is found as a structural component of the nucleoprotein particles in the infected cells. These results suggested that the total genetic information is included in the three heavy RNAs in accord with the finding that there is no replicative form for 12s RNA [6] and that there is redundant sequence coding for the coat protein in 17s RNA [7] . Similar results have been obtained with another multicomponent virus, the Brome Mosaic Virus [ 8,9] . It is obvious that studies on the expression of genes located in such different RNAs by means of in vitro translation should bring some insight into the role of these RNAs and their irregulation.