[Pathogenic Machupo and Lassa arenaviruses: the biochemical properties of virion RNA and proteins].

Lassa virus purified in the isodensity sucrose concentration gradient had the following buoyant densities: 1.17 g/cm3 (sucrose), 1.19 g/cm3 (cesium chloride), 1.16 g/cm3 (urografin). Similar parameters were obtained for Machupo virus. Virion RNAs of these viruses contained 5 sedimentation classes of molecules: 30-31S, 28S, 22-24S, 18S, and 4-6S. Experiments on hybridization of individual sedimentation classes of RNA with an excess of poly(A)-containing RNA from the infected cells as well as inhibition of synthesis of 28S and 18S virion RNAs with low concentrations (0.005-0.5 micrograms/ml) of actinomycin D showed the genetic information for virus proteins to be coded for in two segments: 30-31S and 22-24S. The method of self-annealing demonstrated molecules with complementary sequence ("plus" and "minus" strands) in genome RNAs. In addition to previously described major proteins (78K, 64K, 37K), high performance liquid gel-penetrating chromatography of Machupo virus structural proteins revealed a minor protein with molecular weight of 50 kilodaltons. Pulse-chase experiments demonstrated in the infected cells a precursor-product metabolic bond between glycosylated proteins 78K and 37K. Lassa virus contained 3 structural major proteins with molecular weights 60, 48, and 34 kilodaltons (K). The 60K protein was detected in the nucleocapsid fraction, and 48 K protein in the soluble subvirion fraction. Proteins 60K and 34K were immunoprecipitated in greatest amounts in the infected cells.