Research on biosynthesis of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) ribonucleic acid (RNA) in vitro has been reported by Cochran, et al; Karasek and Schramm; Kim and Wildman; Cornuet and Astier; and Tongur and Baland in. It has been postulated that the replication of a number of viruses containing single-stranded RNA is accompanied by the formation of a virus-specific double-stranded helical RNA, the replicative form. This has been demonstrated both for animal and bacterial viruses including MS2. The double helical structure of purified replicative form of MS2 was established by X-ray diffraction studies. One of the strands was shown to be a viral RNA strand of the parental type ( plus strand), the other being complementary to it ( minus strand). Studies on Escherichia coli infected with RNA phages suggest that a structure containing both a plus 11 and a minus strand is an obligatory intermediate in viral reproduction
