Chapter 34 



The Ribonucleic Acids of Viruses 



Heinz Schuster 

 Max-Planck-Institut fur Virusforschung, Tubingen, Germany 



I. Introduction 245 



II. Viruses Which Contain Ribonucleic Acid; General Remarks 246 



1 . Plant Viruses .' 247 



2. Animal Viruses 249 



III. The Ribonucleic Acids of Plant Viruses 251 



1. Tobacco Mosaic Virus Ribonucleic Acid 252 



a. Arrangement of the Ribonucleic Acid in Tobacco Mosaic Virus 252 



b. Preparation of Biologically Active Ribonucleic Acid 256 



c. Size and Structure of the Infectious Ribonucleic Acid 260 



d. Constitution and Biological Activity 268 



e. Reaction with Nitrous Acid and Production of Mutants 278 



f. Infectious Ribonucleic Acid and the Host Cell 283 



g. Reconstitution of Virus from Ribonucleic Acid and Protein 289 



2. The Ribonucleic Acids of Other Plant Viruses 291 



IV. The Ribonucleic Acids of Animal Viruses 293 



1 . Introductory Remarks 293 



2. Arrangement of the Ribonucleic Acids in Animal Viruses 294 



3. Preparation of Biologically Active Ribonucleic Acids 295 



4. Size of Infectious Ribonucleic Acids 298 



5. Reaction of Infectious Ribonucleic Acids with Chemical Agents 300 



I. Introduction 



In 1944 Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty 1 demonstrated, for the first time, 

 that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) isolated from bacteria was capable of 

 transmitting a specific biological property: DNA obtained by extraction 

 from an encapsulated strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae was able to trans- 

 form noncapsulated cells into capsulated ones. Several years later, Hershey 

 and Chase 2 demonstrated that bacteriophage DNA penetrates into the 

 host cell after adsorption of the virus to the cell and that this DNA can be 

 transmitted to the daughter virus particles. 



The studies of these two groups of workers have resulted in an important 

 experimental confirmation of the thesis that DNA is the genetic material 



1 O. T. Avery, C. M. MacLeod, M. McCarty, J. Exptl. Med. 79, 137 (1944). 



2 A. D. Hershey and M. Chase, J. Gen. Physiol. 36, 39 (1953). 



245 



