Physical and Chemical Properties and Infectivity of RNA from Animal Viruses

The dogma of modern biology states that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the key substance of heredity with ribonucleic acid (RNA) of “certain viruses” as an exception. All known plant viruses, a good proportion of animal viruses, and now, a few bacteriophages are within this exception. RNA in tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) has been known for about a quarter of a century but virtually all of the work with animal virus RNA has been carried out within the last decade, with most of the important work reported during the last five years. I shall attempt to present a broad view on the state of current knowledge of RNA from animal viruses and this will be somewhat in the nature of a review. Much useful information can be obtained from the extensive work with RNA of plant viruses, particularly TMV. Only limited quantities of material have been available from animal viruses...