Analysis of in vitro transcription products of intracellular vesicular stomatitis virus RNA polymerase.

The intracellular transcriptase complex of vesicular stomatitis virus-infected L cells synthesized RNA complementary to the entire infectious virus genome at either 37 degrees C or 28 degrees C in vitro. Not all sequences were present at the same frequency, however; copies of that segment of the genome common to the LT defective particles were present at 20 to 100 times higher frequently than copies of the genome segment common to the ST defective particle. The less frequent region was transcribed somewhat more effectively at 28 degrees C than at 37 degrees C. The results suggest that transcriptional regulation rather than selective degradation is responsible for the differential accumulation of RNA.