Organization and Interviral Homologies of the 3'-terminal Portion of Potato Virus S RNA

Summary The sequence of 3553 nucleotides corresponding to the 3′-terminal region of potato virus S (PVS) has been determined from cloned cDNA. The sequence obtained contains six open reading frames (ORFs) encoding proteins of M r 10734, M r 32515, M r 7222, M r 11802, M r 25092 and at least M r 41052. The sequence of the 33K ORF has been confirmed to be that of the viral coat protein gene. The nucleotide sequence of this ORF was obtained from plasmids which were isolated by colony hybridization with a specific monoclonal antibody to PVS, and the expression of coat protein fusion products was verified by Western blots of bacterial cell lystates. The deduced amino acid sequence of a 70 amino acid portion from the central region of the PVS coat protein was 59% identical to the analogous region of potato virus X. In addition, the 7K, 12K and 25K ORFs displayed significant sequence homology with the similarly sized ORFs from a number of potexviruses. The partial 41K ORF product was homologous with the C-terminal portion of the viral replicase proteins of potato virus X and white clover mosaic virus.