Size and complexity of polyadenylated RNAs induced in tobacco infected with sonchus yellow net virus.

Hybridization of 32P-labeled sonchus yellow net virus (SYNV) RNA to polyadenylated (poly A+) RNA from infected tobacco reveals the presence of four electrophoretically distinct components. These components probably represent five discrete RNA species complementary to SYNV RNA (scRNAs). The scRNAs are smaller than the 13,000 nucleotide (NT) SYNV genome and range in size from 1200 to 6600 NT. Individual recombinant DNA clones derived from SYNV RNA hybridize to at least three and probably four of the scRNAs. These results suggest that each of the scRNAs contains unique sequences with a combined size representing more than 90% of the viral genome. Therefore, the size range and sequence complexity of the scRNAs are as expected for messenger RNAs encoding the four major SYNV polypeptides and the minor "L-protein."