The Structure of Replicating Adenovirus DNA Molecules: Characterization of DNA-Protein Complexes from Infected Cells

Abstract

The genomes of the adenoviruses are nonpermuted, linear, duplex DNA molecules with molecular weights of 20–29 × 106 (for review, see Levine et al. 1976). Mature adenovirus (Ad) genomes isolated from purified virus particles have been shown to contain two novel structural features. First, the nucleotide sequence at one terminus of each strand of the Ad duplex is complementary to the sequence at the other terminus. The existence of this inverted terminal repetition was first inferred from the observation that unit–length Ad single strands cyclize when placed under hybridization conditions (Wolfson and Dressler 1972; Garon et al. 1972) and has been confirmed more recently for human adenovirus types 2 (Ad2) and 5 (Ad5) by direct sequence analysis (Steenbergh et al. 1977; J. R. Arrand and R. J. Roberts, pers. comm.). Second, the 5′ termini of Ad strands are tightly bound to a protein (Robinson et al. 1973; Robinson and Bellet...