DNA synthesis catalysed by RNA-directed DNA-polymerase (reverse transcriptase) was found to proceed on the RNA template of an MS2 phage in the presence of heteropolymeric synthetic octa- and nonadeoxyribonucleotide primers complementary to the intercistronic region (coat protein binding site) and the region of the coat protein cistron, respectively. The product of synthesis consists of discrete...

The eukaryotic-like primase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus (SsoPriSL) exhibits a range of activities including template-dependent de novo primer synthesis, primer extension and template-independent terminal nucleotidyl transfer using either rNTPs or dNTPs. Remarkably, the enzyme is able to synthesize products far longer than templates in vitro. Here we show that the...

The minimal RNA synthesis machinery of non-segmented negative-strand RNA viruses comprises a genomic RNA encased within a nucleocapsid protein (N-RNA), and associated with the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP). The RdRP is contained within a viral large (L) protein, which associates with N-RNA through a phosphoprotein (P). Here, we define that vesicular stomatitis virus L initiates synthesis ...

Conducting polymers represent an important class of functional organic materials for next-generation electronic and optical devices. Advances in nanotechnology allow for the fabrication of various conducting polymer nanomaterials through synthesis methods such as solid-phase template synthesis, molecular template synthesis, and template-free synthesis. Nanostructured conducting polymers featuri...

The recombinant RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of the bovine viral diarrhea virus specifically requires a cytidylate at the 3' end for the de novo initiation of RNA synthesis (C. C. Kao, A. M. Del Vecchio, and W. Zhong, Virology 253:1-7, 1999). Using RNAs containing nucleotide analogs, we found that the N3 and C4-amino group at the initiation cytidine were required for RNA synthesis. However, the...

Cereal yellow dwarf virus (CYDV) RNA has a 5'-terminal genome-linked protein (VPg). We have expressed the VPg region of the CYDV genome in bacteria and used the purified protein (bVPg) to raise an antiserum which was able to detect free VPg in extracts of CYDV-infected oat plants. A template-dependent RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) has been produced from a CYDV membrane-bound RNA polymeras...

With eukaryotic genome replication, incomplete telomere synthesis results in chromosome shortening and eventual compromise of genome stability. Telomerase counteracts this terminal sequence loss by synthesizing telomeric repeats through repeated cycles of reverse transcription of its internal RNA template. Using human telomerase domain-complementation assays for telomerase reverse transcriptase...

Dimethylnitrosamine maximally inhibits rat liver nuclear RNA synthesis by 50% at a dose of 40 mg/kg of body weight. The inhibition develops during the first 4 hr and persists through the 12th hr. All parenchymal cells of the lever lobule seem to be affected. The decreased RNA synthesis can be accounted for entirely by an inhibition of the RNA polymerase activities quantitatively solubilized and...

In vitro studies have indicated that retroviral nucleocapsid (NC) protein facilitates both DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase (RT) and annealing of the nascent DNA with acceptor template. Increasing the rate of DNA synthesis is expected to reduce the frequency of RT template switching, whereas annealing the nascent DNA with acceptor template promotes template switching. We performed a mutat...

Synthesis of the relaxed-circular (RC) DNA genome of hepadnaviruses requires two template switches during plus-strand DNA synthesis: primer translocation and circularization. Although primer translocation and circularization use different donor and acceptor sequences, and are distinct temporally, they share the common theme of switching from one end of the minus-strand template to the other end...