Detection of virus-specific RNA in simian sarcoma-leukemia virus-infected cells in in situ hybridization to viral complementary DNA.

An in situ molecular hybridization system which will detect retrovirus RNA in the cytoplasm of individual virus-infected cells has been developed. The technique was applied to cells infected with simian sarcoma-leukemia virus, where the virus-specific RNA was detected by hybridization to simian sarcoma-leukemia virus 3H-labeled complementary DNA. The system is useful for detecting viral RNA-containing cells in the presence of an excess of virus-negative cells and for determining which type of cell in a heterogenous population is expressing viral RNA.