Microcentrifuge technique and its application for visualizing the simultaneous replication and transcription of an adenovirus DNA.

Abstract

Miller's technique (microcentrifuge method) of visualizing transcriptional events at the molecular level is introduced with a review on the work that applied this technique, and followed by presentation of an article describing one such application in which the modes of replication and transcription are electronmicroscopically demonstrated in an adenovirus-infected cell nucleus. Adenovirus is chosen owing to its character of multiplying in a mammalian cell nucleus. Recently, there have been many important discoveries on the modes of DNA replication and RNA transcription through biochemical probes. It is confirmed by Miller's technique that large primary precursor messenger RNA is first transcribed at a late stage in a cell nucleus productively infected with adenovirus. Evidence is shown that a replicating viral DNA molecule can be simultaneously transcribed.