A rapid method for the quantitative study of RNA from canine distemper virus infected cells

Centrifugation through CsCl was used to isolate 32P-labelled RNA in a one-step purification procedure. The method is suitable for quantitative as well as preparative studies and appears to have considerable advantages over conventional methods of RNA extraction. We have used this procedure to investigate the RNA synthesized in Vero cells infected with canine distemper virus (CDV). We show that the combination of CsCl centrifugation and affinity chromatography on poly-U Sepharose provides a rapid method for isolating messenger RNA from virus infected cells.