Other Pages Experiments with tobamoviruses revealed that RNA, as well as DNA , could carry hereditary information. TMV particles can be dissociated into RNA and protein components. Mixed particles, with RNA of one strain and protein of another, can also be formed.
Mixed particles are infectious.
The type of symptoms produced by mixed particles are not due to the coat protein. Rather, the TMV nucleic acid carries the genetic information that determines symptom type. This experiment further strengthened the idea that nucleic acids were the carriers of genetic information. The process of introducing genetic information into a cell by encapsidating the nucleic acid in a viral or phage coat is known as transfection and is widely used in molecular cloning . The combinatorial mixing of viral RNA and capsid proteins of different tobamoviruses and their assembly into virions further suggested that the nucleic acid was the genetic material.