Evidence that vesicular stomatitis virus produces double-stranded RNA that inhibits protein synthesis in a reticulocyte lysate.

Cell-free protein synthesis by reticulocyte lysates was inhibited by a polyadenylated RNA fraction extracted from HeLa cells infected with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) but not by polyadenylated RNA from mock-infected HeLa cells. A similar inhibitor of cell-free protein synthesis was found in a polyadenylated fraction of RNA transcribed in vitro by VSV but not in untranscribed nucleocapsids. Fractionation of the VSV transcription product showed that the translation inhibitor segregated with nucleocapsids containing newly transcribed polyadenylated or non-polyadenylated RNA, as determined by oligodeoxythymidylate-cellulose chromatography. The inhibitors present in VSV-infected HeLa cells and in VSV in vitro transcripts both appeared to be double-stranded RNA, as judged by the characteristics for inhibition of reticulocyte cell-free protein synthesis described by Hunter et al. (J. Biol. Chem. 250:409-417, 1975). The double-stranded nature of the VSV RNA inhibitor was supported by the finding that the translational inhibitory effect was inactivated by melting the inhibitor in the absence of salt and by micrococcal nuclease.