Simian Virus 40 Deoxyribonucleic Acid Replication

Abstract

Infectious deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted from green monkey kidney (CV-1) cultures at various times after the cultures were infected with simian virus 40 (SV40) at input multiplicities of 0.01 and 0.1 plaque-forming unit (PFU) per cell. A pronounced decrease in infectious DNA was observed from 3 to 16 hr after virus infection, suggesting that structurally altered intracellular forms may have been generated early in infection. Evidence is also presented that SV40 DNA synthesis requires concurrent protein synthesis. DNA replication was studied in the presence and absence of cycloheximide in: (i) SV40-infected and uninfected cultures of CV-1 cells; (ii) cultures synchronized with 1-β- d -arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C) for 24 to 30 hr prior to the addition of cycloheximide; and (iii) in heterokaryons of SV40-transformed hamster and susceptible monkey kidney cells. DNA synthesis was determined by pulse-labeling the cultures with 3 H-thymidine at various times from 24 to 46 hr after infection. In addition, the total infectious SV40 DNA was measured. Addition of cycloheximide, even after early proteins had been induced, grossly inhibited both SV40 and cellular DNA syntheses. The activities of thymidine kinase, DNA polymerase, deoxycytidylate deaminase, and thymidylate kinase were measured; these enzyme activities remained high for at least 9 hr in the presence of cycloheximide. SV40 DNA prelabeled with 3 H-thymidine before the addition of cycloheximide was also relatively stable during the time required for cycloheximide to inhibit further DNA replication.