Resistance of Semliki forest virus protein synthesis to high salt treatment.

Selective translation of Semliki Forest virus-specific mRNA occurred in virus-infected cells exposed to hypertonic growth medium. The selective resistance of the virus-specific protein synthesis could be detected at a wide NaCl concentration range and was more significant at lowered incubation temperature (28 degrees C). It is suggested that the translation of the structural proteins encoding subgenomic 26 S RNA is more resistant to the hypertonic initiation block than the translation of the genomic 42 S RNA which codes for the non-structural viral proteins.