Molecular Biology 5th Edition by Robert Weaver

Exercise 1

You are studying a virus that produces mRNAs with extraordinary caps having a net charge of 4 instead of 5. You find these caps have the usual methylations of cap 1: the m 7 G and the 2-O-methyl on the penultimate nucleotide, but no additional methylations. Propose a hypothesis to explain the reduced negative charge and describe experiments to test your hypothesis. Describe sample positive results.