Identification of the sequence content of four polycistronic transcripts synthesized in Newcastle disease virus infected cells

During infection, the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) genome is transcribed to produce 5 to 7 species of polycistronic messenger RNA (Wilde and Morrison, J. Virol. 51, 71-76) in addition to the well characterized monocistronic messenger RNA. To identify the specific sequences present in each of the polycistronic RNA species, cDNA clones generated by reverse transcription of NDV mRNAs were characterized and used as probes on Northern blots of total NDV cytoplasmic RNA. By this method, it was shown that four of these large RNA species are polycistronic transcripts containing sequences from two genes: one species contains nucleocapsid protein (NP) and phosphoprotein (P) gene sequences; another, P and membrane protein (M) gene sequences; another, M and fusion protein (F0) gene sequences; and another, F0 and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein (HN) gene sequences. The existence of these transcripts yields a transcription map order of NP, P, M, F0, HN. The remaining RNA bands may be composed of at least three different polycistronic transcripts, each of which represents transcription through three adjacent genes.