Annealing and Hybridization Properties of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 DNA

Abstract

The hybridization properties of the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV) genome have been analysed. The DNA has a kinetic complexity of 1 × 10^-8. E. coli RNA polymerase was found to initiate synthesis at about 70 sites on the HSV DNA. The in vitro RNA product from this reaction was complementary to about 80% of the HSV genome. The RNA-DNA hybridization rate constant (K^h) was determined using conditions of both RNA excess and DNA excess. Using this rate constant one can analyse the content of HSV sequences in any RNA population.