RNA synthesis of vesicular stomatitis virus. V. Interactions between transcription and replication.

The temperature-sensitive mutant ts114 of vesicular stomatitis virus is temperature-sensitive in both primary and secondary transcription, but not in the replication of 40S RNA. The synthesis of 40S RNA is specifically inhibited when protein synthesis is shut off. The addition of cycloheximide to cells infected by ts114, rapidly inhibits RNA replication at the permissive and nonpermissive temperatures. However, the addition of cycloheximide at the nonpermissive temperature also results in almost complete recovery of transcription to the level found at the permissive temperature. Other inhibitors of protein synthesis applied at the nonpermissive temperature result in the same recoverability of the apparent temperature-sensitive lesion. Ribonucleic acid products synthesized by ts114 at the nonpermissive temperature in the presence of cycloheximide are identical to virus-specific messenger RNA by the criteria of size and complementarity to virion RNA. When mutant-infected cells are shifted to the nonpermissive temperature, incubated for a period of time, and then treated with cycloheximide, the ratio of transcriptive to replicative activity varies depending on the time at which radioactive precursor is added to cells. This suggests an interdependence between replication and transcription during virus-specific RNA synthesis.