Studies on the conformation of a polyelectrolyte in solution: local conformation of cucumber green mottle mosaic virus RNA compared with tobacco mosaic virus RNA

The thermal stability of the local structures of cucumber green mottle mosaic virus RNA, CGMMV-RNA, and tobacco mosaic virus RNA, TMV-RNA, was studied by circular dichroism (CD) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and compared with each other in the temperature domain from 20 to 50 degrees C. The temperature dependence of the molar ellipticity and mean-square radius of the cross section of a chain shows that the structure of CGMMV-RNA is more vulnerable than that of TMV-RNA. Such a different thermal stability of their structures was also reflected in the temperature dependence of the length and number of the constituent rods when the structures of the two RNA chains were represented by a model which consisted of rods joined with freely hinged joints. From these results, a possibility was suggested that the structural stability of CGMMV-RNA and TMV-RNA might be correlated with the infectivity of the corresponding virus, CGMMV and TMV, respectively.