Polyadenylation, methylation, and capping of the RNA synthesized in vitro by African swine fever virus

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) virus synthesizes in vitro four classes of capped and polyadenylated RNAs with sedimentation coefficients of about 16,12, 10, and 7 S, free poly(A) with a sedimentation coefficient of about 4 S and a material, smaller than 4 S, labeled with S-adenosyl[methyl-3H]methionine and partially polyadenylated. The average chain length of free and RNA-bound poly(A) is about 14 and 33 nucleotides, respectively. The following CAP structures were present in the RNA: m7GpppAm (79%), m7GpppGm (13%), GpppAm (5.8%), and GpppGm (2.3%). Neither CAP 2 structure nor internal methylations were detected in the RNA.