FIG. 7.

Electrophoretic analysis of RNA packaged by five different coat protein deletion mutants. (Top) Amino acid sequence of the wt gamma peptide (residues 364 to 407) and schematic representation of the mutant coat proteins. Thin lines indicate deleted areas, whereas shaded boxes represent maintained residues. Numbers refer to terminal residues in the mutant coat proteins. (Bottom) Denaturing agarose gel showing RNAs extracted from gradient-purified mutant particles. Particles were synthesized and purified as described in Materials and Methods, and RNA was extracted with phenol-chloroform. Aliquots were size fractionated on a denaturing 1% agarose-formaldehyde gel, and nucleic acids were visualized by staining with ethidium bromide. Lane 1, RNA molecular size markers; lane 2, RNA extracted from Δγ387 particles; lane 3, RNA extracted from Δγ394 particles; lane 4, RNA extracted from Δγ400 particles; lane 5, RNA extracted from Δγ403 particles; lane 6, RNA extracted from Δγ405 particles; lane 7, RNA extracted from wt particles.