Satellite RNAs usurp the replication machinery of their helper viruses, even though they bear little or no sequence similarity to the helper virus RNA. In Cereal yellow dwarf polerovirus serotype RPV (CYDV-RPV), the 322-nucleotide satellite RNA (satRPV RNA) accumulates to high levels in the presence of the CYDV-RPV helper virus. Rolling circle replication generates multimeric satRPV RNAs that self-cleave via a doublehammerhead ribozyme structure. Alternative folding inhibits formation of a hammerhead in monomeric satRPV RNA. Here we determine helper virus requirements and the effects of mutations and deletions in satRPV RNA on its replication in oat cells. Using in vivo selection of a satRPV RNA pool randomized at specific bases, we found that disruption of the base pairing necessary to form the non-self-cleaving conformation reduced satRPV RNA accumulation. Unlike other satellite RNAs, both the plus and minus strands proved to be equally infectious. Accordingly, very similar essential replication structures were identified in each strand. A different region is required only for encapsidation. The CYDV-RPV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (open reading frames 1 and 2), when expressed from the nonhelper Barley yellow dwarf luteovirus, was capable of replicating satRPV RNA. Thus, the helper virus's polymerase is the sole determinant of the ability of a virus to replicate a rolling circle satellite RNA. We present a framework for functional domains in satRPV RNA with three types of function: (i) conformational control elements comprising an RNA switch, (ii) self-functional elements (hammerhead ribozymes), and (iii) cis-acting elements that interact with viral proteins.Satellite RNAs depend on helper viruses for replication, encapsidation, and dissemination among hosts (47, 48). Satellite RNAs that form circles (circular satellite RNAs) (2,20) encode no functional open reading frames (ORFs). Thus, the helper virus and the host must provide all trans-acting factors necessary for replication. Satellite RNAs accumulate to high levels in the presence of a helper virus, despite having no sequence homology with the helper virus RNA. In contrast, viroids are autonomously replicating circular RNA pathogens that do not require a helper virus or virion (2,14,20). Circular satellite RNAs and viroids (4) are the smallest replicating nucleic acids, ranging from 225 to about 450 nucleotides (nt) in length. Thus, they serve as models for understanding the minimum requirements for the replication of genetic information. This can shed light on virus replication processes and lead to means of interfering with virus infection.Numerous studies of replication intermediates and the processing of satellite RNAs support the following rolling circle mechanism for replication of circular satellite RNAs (4, 5). Upon exiting the virion in the cell, the infectious circular plusstrand RNA is copied into a linear, multimeric minus strand (4, 5). (For satellite RNAs that encode no ORFs, we define the encapsidated strand as plus sense.) The minus stran...