Separation of the complementary strands of double-stranded cucumber mosaic virus-associated RNA 5 and peanut stunt virus-associated RNA 5.

The double-stranded forms of CARNA 5 and PARNA 5, viral satellites of the cucumovirus group, after denaturation and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under appropriate conditions allow their complementary strands to be separated and fractionated. These fractionated (+) and (-) strands are free of contaminating viral RNA fragments. They serve as templates for the preparation of cDNAs of opposite polarity, which are used to probe the viral RNA-dependent replication of CARNA 5 and PARNA 5.