Autoradiographic Study of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Synthesis in L Cells Infected with the Agent of Meningopneumonitis

Moore, Dorothy E. (University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.), and James W. Moulder. Autoradiographic study of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in L cells infected with the agent of meningopneumonitis. J. Bacteriol. 92:1128-1132. 1966.-L cells infected with the agent of meningopneumonitis were labeled with H(3)-cytidine at 5-hr intervals after infection, and cell samples were fixed every 5 hr after labeling. These preparations were then digested with ribonuclease, stained by the Feulgen procedure, and examined by autoradiography. Labeled meningopneumonitis inclusions were first seen 15 hr after infection. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was synthesized in both L-cell nuclei and meningopneumonitis agent for as long as 40 hr after infection. Nuclear DNA synthesis was unaffected until 25 hr after infection, at which time synthesis of agent DNA reached its peak. After 25 hr, both meningopneumonitis and L cell DNA synthesis declined.