Satellite tobacco ringspot virus RNA: A subset of the RNA sequence is sufficient for autolytic processing.

The satellite RNA of tobacco ringspot virus depends upon tobacco ringspot virus for its replication and source of coat protein. The satellite RNA reduces virus accumulation and the severity of virus-induced symptoms. Repetitive sequence, dimeric, and higher forms of the satellite RNA are known to autolytically process to form biologically active monomeric RNA of 359 nucleotide residues [Prody, G. A., Bakos, J. T., Buzayan, J. M., Schneider, I. R. & Bruening, G. (1986) Science 231, 1577-1580], with a 5'-hydroxyl and a 2',3'-cyclic phosphodiester as the new terminal groups. We show here that transcripts of full-length and truncated DNA clones of the satellite RNA sequence also process in a nonenzymic reaction. One such transcript was an RNA that has about one-fourth of the satellite RNA sequence, representing the 3'-terminal and 5'-terminal portions of monomeric RNA joined in the junction that is cleaved in dimeric RNA. This RNA autolytically processed more efficiently than molecules with a larger proportion of the satellite RNA nucleotide sequence.