RNA synthesis in cells infected with herpes simplex virus. IX. Evidence for accumulation of abundant symmetric transcripts in nuclei.

RNA extracted from nuclei of 8-h infected cells drove approximately 50% of herpes virus DNA into DNA-RNA hybrid. The same RNA, preannealed under conditions which allowed base pairing to take place, drove only 35% of the DNA into DNA-RNA hybrid; further annealing of the RNA did not diminish the amount of RNA sequences remaining available for subsequent hybridization with DNA. Upon denaturation of the preannealed RNA, the RNA sequences sequestered during preannealing became available again for hybridization with DNA. The base pairing that occurred during preincubation of the RNA was inter-molecular, since it was RNA concentration dependent and was not affected by limited alkaline hydrolysis. The nuclear viral transcripts that remained available for hybridization, after preannealing of the RNA, were subset of the RNA sequences that accumulated in the cytoplasm of infected cells. In addition, a small amount (derived from 5% or less of the viral DNA) of complementary transcripts was detected in the cytoplasm.