SPLICED STRUCTURE OF BK-VIRUS MESSENGER-RNAS IN LYTICALLY INFECTED AND TRANSFORMED-CELLS

The mRNA molecules of human papovavirus BKV in lytically infected cells and in a transformed human cell culture cloned from a population infected with uv-inactivated BKV were mapped using the nuclease S1 technique. Two BKV mRNA species are synthesized in cells early after lytic infection and in virus-transformed cells. The 5′ end of one RNA species (and of the other by inference) maps at approximately 0.66 map unit near the origin for DNA replication, and the 3′ ends of both molecules map at 0.16 unit. The intervening sequences deleted from these mRNAs are located between 0.585 and 0.53 map unit for one species and between 0.535 and 0.53 map unit for the other. The map positions of these RNAs are similar to the locations of the SV40 mRNAs which encode the large T-antigen and small t-antigens, respectively. We also determined the genomic locations of the late BKV mRNA species. The body sequences of the late 16 S RNA map between 0.93 and 0.16 unit and those of the late 19 S RNA between 0.765 and 0.16 unit. A significant proportion of these late transcripts contain a leader RNA transcribed from 0.70 to 0.76 map unit. The spliced late lytic BKV RNAs synthesized in both human embryonic kidney cells and African green monkey kidney cells appear to be identical. © 1979.