title: Synthesis of novel products in vitro by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.
abstract: RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from turnip crinkle virus-infected turnip transcribes both strands of a virus-associated satellite RNA, sat-RNA C (356 bases), in vitro. While both plus- and minus-strand sat-RNA C can direct the synthesis of full-length complementary-strand products, transcription of minus-strand RNA also generates two non-template-sized products, L-RNA and S-RNA (C. Song and A. E. Simon, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:8792-8796, 1994). Here we report that synthesis of L-RNA and S-RNA results from terminal elongation of the 3' end of the template. L-RNA has a panhandle structure and is composed of minus-strand template covalently linked to newly synthesized RNA complementary to its 5' 190 bases. S-RNA is composed of template covalently linked to its full-length complementary strand. All minus-strand templates tested yielded S-RNA. However, synthesis of L-RNA was affected by deletion of the 3' end of the minus-strand template or several internal regions and base alterations near the 5' end or in an internal sequence immediately upstream from the template-product junction that could potentially form a heteroduplex with the 3' end. Furthermore, mutations that disrupted or restored a stem-loop involved in RNA recombination in vivo affected the level of L-RNA produced in vitro, suggesting that the mechanisms for intramolecular formation of panhandle RNAs and intermolecular RNA recombination involve similar features.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst 01003, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Simon
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012313:RNA / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase / Q000502:physiology*; D013698:Templates, Genetic; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D012313:RNA; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase