Use of restriction endonucleases in analyzing the genome of simian virus 40

Bacterial restriction endonucleases have been used to cleave SV40 DNA at specific sites. The resulting fragments have been ordered in the molecule, resulting in a physical cleavage map of the SV40 chromosome. With this map as a reference, sites of initiation and termination of DNA replication have been located, as have regions of the genome expressed early and late in productively infected cells. The 5'→3' orientation of each strand of SV 40 DNA has also been determined; from this information and prior identification of the early and late template strands, the direction of early and late transcription could be deduced. (30 references)