Bestimmung der biologisch wirksamen Einheit in der Ribosenucleinsäure des Tabakmosaikvirus auf chemischem Wege

Abstract

The infectious ribonucleic acid of tobacco mosaic virus was desaminated by HNO2 without splitting the nucleotide chain. By hydrolysis of the treated RNA the reaction rate of adenine to hypoxanthine, of guanine to xanthine and of cytosine to uracil was determined. Simultaneously the inactivation of the RNA was measured by bioassay. The desamination of one nucleotide out of 3300 inactivates the whole molecule. Since the RNA of TMV contains 6000 nucleotides more than half of all nucleotides are necessary for the infectivity. It is possible that the alteration of some nucleotides leads to mutation rather than to inactivation.