Restricted initiation of protein synthesis on the potentially polycistronic Sindbis virus 42 S RNA.

Sindbis 42 S genome RNA was isolated from virions and translated in vitro before and after purification by oligo(dT)-cellulose chromatography and sucrose density gradient centrifugation under denaturing conditions. In intact 42 S RNA, only the 5'-proximal initiation site for the synthesis of nonstructural proteins was used. The internally located start site for viral structural protein formation was active in broken genome RNA molecules where, as a consequence of fragmentation, it was closer to a 5' end. The results of several kinds of experiments indicate that the fragmentation-dependent synthesis of structural proteins directed by virion RNA was not due to the presence of 26 S subgenomic messenger RNA.