Purification and biochemical properties of Egtved viral RNA

Abstract

³²P-labeled Egtved virus RNA was released from highly purified virus by phenol-SDS extraction. The single-stranded nature of the RNA was demonstrated by (1) its buoyant density of 1.69 g/cm³ in Cs₂SO₄, (2) its susceptibility to digestion by pancreatic ribonuclease in either 1 × SSC or 0.01 × SSC(standard saline citrate), (3) its base composition (29.3% C, 23.6% A, 14.5% U, 32.6% G).This Egtved virus is different from the other rhabdoviruses since the base composition of its genomic RNA is lower in its composition of A + U. Such a result could have possible taxonomic implications concerning the origin and evolution of Egtved Virus relative to the other known rhabdoviruses.