RNA is covalently linked to SV40 large T antigen

RNA is shown to be covalently linked to the large tumor antigen (TAg) of simian virus 40 (SV40). Proteolytic digestion of TAg, isolated in the presence of ribonuclease inhibitors from SV40 transformed Balb/c mouse cells, generated a specific phosphopeptide of high charge heterogeneity that was strongly retained on DEAE-cellulose in the presence of 7 M urea. Hydrolysis of this peptide with RNAase released the four standard ribonucleotide monophosphates. Analysis of peptide digestion products showed that the RNA is attached to TAg through a phosphodiester linkage between the beta-hydroxyl of a serine and the 5' phosphate of an invariant cytidine residue. The methods applied to SV40 TAg can be applied to other proteins, including cellular oncogene products, to investigate the possibility of covalent protein-RNA interactions.