Re infectivity of naked viral DNA

[Lyle Najita]

>If caulimovirus DNA is infectious on its own, does this also hold true for
HBV?  It is my understand >there is a circular RNA (hepatitis delta agent)
associated with HBV that is compared with a viroid.  >Do caulimo viruses
also contain this circular RNA? 
 
Amy, 
 
I can't address the issue of circular RNAs associated with caulimo viruses,
but the analogy between hepatitis delta viral RNA and viroid RNA is due to
the presence of self-cleavage domains in both polarities of HDV RNA similar
to those characterized in viroid RNAs. The difference between HDV and
viroids are: 1) the presence of an operational open reading frame in the
anti-genomic sense RNA which encodes the delta antigen; 2) the relatively
large size of HDV RNA (1.7kb vs. ~0.4kb); and 3) the requirement for the
RNA to be packaged into particles to be infectious (in natural infectious
cycle of the virus). 
 
L