Recombination in Bacteriophage Qβ and Its Satellite RNAs: Thein Vivoandin VitroStudies

Abstract

The Qβ phage has recently emerged as a unique model for studying RNA recombination bothin vivoand in a purified cell-free system. Thein vitroexperiments have provided the first direct evidence of the ability of RNA to recombine without DNA intermediates and of the existence of a splicing type RNA recombination mechanism.