This proposal requests funds to permit Dr. Jeremy Bruenn, Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, to pursue with Dr. Hyun Sam Kang, Director, Institute for Molecular Biology and Genetics, Seoul National University, for a period of 24 months, a program of cooperative research on cis-acting sites in the yeast viral double-stranded RNA's. This research will address current problems involving the interaction of proteins and nucleic acids. The collaborators will undertake a fine-structure mapping of the recognition sites on the viral plus strand for viral proteins. This will be accomplished by RNase protection experiments and by in vitro mutagenesis of cDNA clones of relevant regions and their expression both in vivo and in vitro. Viruses provide a convenient means of addressing some of the problems involving the interactions of proteins and nucleic acids. In particular, viruses with their own packaged polymerases provide self-contained systems in which the interaction of both enzymatic and structural proteins with nucleic acids can be studied in an easily purified and isolated form. The ScV, or Saccharomyces cerevisiae virus provides an opportunity to study these interactions and protein interaction with double stranded RNA's (dsRNA's) as well. The U.S. and Korean collaborators are highly respected scientists who not only have extensive individual research records but also a record of successful collaboration in the field of the proposal. This project is relevant to the objectives of the U.S.-Korea Cooperative Science Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. and Korean scientists and engineers through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit. Korean participation in the project is supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF).
