"Endless" viral DNA in cells infected with channel catfish virus

The state of intracellular viral DNA in cells infected with channel catfish virus has been studied by the Hirt selective extraction procedure and by restriction endonuclease digestion. The sedimentation properties and restriction patterns of viral DNA in the Hirt supernatant fraction indicate that the majority, if not all, of the DNA is in the form of linear unit-length (Mr approximately equal to 85 x 10(6)) molecules. However, restriction digests of viral DNA in the pellet fraction lacked two fragments corresponding to the molecular ends of unit-length DNA. In addition, there appeared in HpaI digests of pellet DNA a new restriction fragment interpretable as the product of fusion between the ends of unit-length molecules. The size of the new fragment requires that fusion occur in such a way that one copy of the terminally repeated sequences (Mr approximately equal to 12.3 x 10(6)) of the unit-length DNA is lost in the process. In pulse-chase experiments, radioactivity flowed from the pellet fraction to the supernatant fraction, suggesting a precursor-product relationship for these DNA species. The results are easily understood if unit-length virion DNA is generated by excision from concatemeric structures.