An Alternative Method of Oligonucleotide Fingerprinting for Resolving Newcastle Disease Virus-Specific RNA Fragments

The technique of "RNA oligonucleotide fingerprinting" was adapted for the purpose of identifying genetic differences among strains of Newcastle disease virus (NDV). The specific method used for visualizing patterns of viral RNA fragments in two-dimensional polyacrylamide gels has several advantages over previously published procedures: It has low input radiation, high resolution, and low biohazard considerations. For demonstration purposes, the La Sota strain of NDV was fingerprinted. These initial results suggest that oligonucleotide mapping may provide an approach for correlating changes in the pathogenicity of NDV with the presence or absence of specific viral RNA sequences.