ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) synthesis by the Indiana Serotype of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), since this serotype has been extensively used for transcription studies in vitro. Consistent with the observation that the genome RNA of purified VSV is noninfectious; the presence of an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase associated with the virions was discovered. Inhibition of in vitro RNA synthesis was demonstrated by some nonspecific reagents such as aurintricaboxylic acid and polyethelene sulfonate. Determination of nucleotide sequences of the genome at the specific termination sites of the transcriptase may shed some light on the polyadenylation process. The polyadenylation process is strictly transcription-dependent since no Poly (A)-polymerase activity could be detected in the absence of transcription. Since the genome of VSV is a linear singlestranded RNA of negative polarity and the in vitro mRNAs consist of several species of different sizes, the VSV system is a model for studying the processes involved in RNA transcription and replication in vitro.
