In vitro Synthesis of Infectious DNA Copies of the Rous Sarcoma Virus Genome

Abstract

Detergent-disrupted virions of Rous sarcoma virus can synthesize in vitro an infectious viral DNA. Infectivity of this DNA was determined in transfection assays at the end-point dilution. It was found that the specific infectivity of the crude endogenous reaction product was 34 infectious units/µg. The endogenous reaction yielded up to 8.5 × 10-7 infectious units per biologically active input virion, i. e., nearly 0.1–1 infectious molecules. The possible structure of these molecules is discussed.

Rous Sarcoma Virus

“…Many laboratories have defined opti mal conditions and mechanisms of reverse transcription, leading to the successful in vitro synthesis of infectious RSV DNA [Junghans et al, 1975; d a y m a n et al, 1979; Mariage and Hill, 1979;Boone and Skalka, 1980].…”