title: Cleavage of Epstein-Barr virus DNA by restriction endonucleases EcoRI, HindIII and BamI.
abstract: The cleavage of the DNAs of the B95-8 and P3HR-1 virus strains of Epstein-Barr virus by the restriction endonucleases EcoRI, HindIII and BamI was investigated using a new technique for quantitative evaluation of the fluorescence of ethidium stained DNA fragments separated on agarose gels. The results obtained with B95-8 DNA showed that in addition to the limited repetitions of nucleotide sequences observed in the EcoRI and HindIII cleavage patterns, the molecule contained a BamI fragment with a molecular mass of 2.0 megadaltons which was present in a total of about 11 copies and localized to a limited part of the DNA molecule. The same sequences were also present in the P3HR-1 DNA albeit in a lower molar ratio. P3HR-1 DNA yielded restriction enzyme cleavage patterns suggesting DNA sequence heterogeneity of P3HR-1 virus. No fragment was present in more than about 4 copies per molecule of P3HR-1 DNA. Comparison of the restriction enzyme cleavage patterns of P3HR-1 and B95-8 DNA revealed a high degree of structural homology emphasized by nucleic acid hybridization experiments with EBV complementary RNA synthesized in vitro.
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*; D003854:Deoxyribonucleotides / Q000032:analysis; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D003854:Deoxyribonucleotides; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes