Viruses of Entamoeba histolytica. IV. Studies on the nucleic acids of the filamentous and polyhedral viruses.

The nucleic acids of two amoebal viruses were studied by several independent methods. The filamentous virus, V(ABRM), was shown to be inhibited by bromodeoxyuridine, iododeoxyuridine, and cytosine arabinoside. With acridine orange staining, V(ABRM) inclusions appeared greenish-yellow, indicating that these contained double-stranded nucleic acid. The polyhedral virus, V(301), was also inhibited by bromodeoxyuridine, iododeoxyuridine, and cytosine arabinoside. In addition, nucleic acid hybridization showed that a new DNA species was synthesized in infected amoebal cultures. The intracellular localization of this new DNA was consistent with previous electron microscope studies of the cytoplasmic maturation of V(301).