INTRACELLULAR EVENTS IN THE REPLICATION OF DEFECTIVE INTERFERING PARTICLES OF VESICULAR STOMATITIS-VIRUS

During a synchronous infection with both wild-type vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and the MS-T defective interfering (DI) particle at levels of high interference, total RNA synthesis was both reduced by 75% and shut off early as compared to the VSV infection alone. In the interfered infection the production of both VSV intracellular nucleocapsids and progeny virus was suppressed by 90% while there was a dramatic increase in intracellular MS-T nucleocapsids. There was a linear accumulation of MS-T nucleocapsids for only 5 hr with the maximum rate of synthesis being observed at 3 hr postinfection. The MS-T nucleocapsids contained genome-length, single-stranded 19 S DI RNA and were 40% of the positive (+)- and 60% of the negative (-)-strand sense. Neither the (+)- nor (-)strand of MS-T nucleocapsid RNA contained poly(A) sequences since none of the RNA or its ribonuclease digestion products bound to oligo(dT)-cellulose. We can detect no methylation of the nucleocapsid RNA and the 5′-termini were not blocked since both the (+)- and (-)-strands initiated with pppA. © 1979.