Differences in polyadenylate length between individual barley stripe mosaic virus RNA species

Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) RNA which has been shown to contain an internal polyadenylate sequence (Agranovsky, Dolja, Gorbulev, Kozlov, and Atabekov, “Virology”, 113, 114–187, 1981; Agranovsky, Dolja, and Atabekov, “Virology,” 119, 51–58, 1982) was resolved into oligo(dT)-cellulose-bound [poly(A) +] and unbound [poly(A) −] fractions. Individual RNAs of all strains tested (i.e., those with two-, three-, or four-components) differentially responded to affinity chromatography. Thus, in all cases the poly(A) + fraction was dramatically enriched in RNA 1 whereas RNA 2 was found mostly in the poly(A) − fraction. RNA 3 was distributed approximately equally between poly(A) + and poly(A) − fractions. The bulk of RNA 4 was in the poly(A) − fraction. The poly(A) length spectra in total, poly(A) +, and poly(A) − BSMV RNA fractions were compared. The length of poly(A) in total BSMV RNA was 8 to 40 residues. Fragments of 19 to 40 residues and probably longer were predominant in the poly(A) + RNA fraction. The poly(A) − fraction contained tracts having not more than approximately 25 adenylate residues, with the bulk of the tracts having 12 or fewer residues.