Preparation and characterization of high-specific activity radiolabeled 50 S measles virus RNA

A method is described to radiolabel measles virus RNA for hybridization studies. Tritiated nucleosides were added to the media of measles virus infected Vero cells and negative-strand (genome) RNA with a specific activity of 6 X 10(5) c.p.m./microgram was purified from viral nucleocapsids. 50 S RNA was the sole RNA present in nucleocapsids and self-annealed to 50% due to the presence of 25% 50 S plus-strands (anti-genomes).