The separation of three antibody populations from anti-poly(A).poly(U) antibodies elicited in mice or rabbits and antigenic features of poly(A).poly(U)).

Anti-poly(A).poly(U) antibodies in ascitic fluid of DDY mice immunized with poly(A).poly(U)-methylated bovine serum albumin complexes were fractionated into three major antibody populations, Ab-1, Ab-2 and Ab-3, by precipitating with poly(I).poly(C), poly(A).poly(U), and poly(A).2 poly(U), respectively. Antibody population one, Ab-2, reacted with various double-stranded RNAs [poly(I).poly(C), poly(A).poly(U), and rice dwarf virus ribonucleic acid (RDV-RNA)] and poly(A).2 poly(U). Ab-2 reacted with poly(A).poly(U) and poly(A).2 poly(U). Although both Ab-1 and Ab-2 reacted with poly(A).poly(U), the two populations were distinguishable by their different reactivities against chemically modified antigens and oligonucleotides. In contrast to Ab-2, acetylation at the furanose 2'-position of poly(U) resulted in a dramatic decrease in the complement fixation reactivity of Ab-2. Also, Ab-2 was capable of binding with complexes of hexa- to heptaadenylates and poly(U), whereas Ab-1 required oligoadenylates of longer chain lengths (9-10 chain length) for binding. Therefore, it appears that poly(A).poly(U) possesses unique antigenic determinants which are recognizable only by Ab-2, in addition to those determinants which are common to a variety of double-stranded RNAs.