Intracellular Distribution of Virus-Specific RNA in Chick Embryo Cells Infected With Japanese Encephalitis Virus

Abstract

Summary Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infected chick embryo (CE) cells were treated with 4 µg actinomycin D/ml and 5 mm-d-glucosamine at 2 or 3 h before harvesting. Production of JEV was not affected by the short-time treatment of these drugs. The radioactivity in virus-specific RNA in the glucosamine-treated cells was apparently higher than in non-treated cells. Nuclear and cytoplasmic extracts were prepared from the JEV-infected cells pulse-labelled with 3H-uridine at 15 h after infection. Analysis of virus RNA in nuclear extracts on sucrose density gradients showed that most of the radioactivity was in 23S RNA, 26S RNA and 8 to 12S RNA. The radioactivity of virus RNA in cytoplasmic extracts was found in 42S RNA and RNA fragments sedimenting at less than 8S.