%0 Journal Article %A Grady, Leo J. %A Sanders, Myrna L. %A Campbell, Wayne P. %T The Sequence of the M RNA of an Isolate of La Crosse Virus %D 1987 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 68 %N 12 %P 3057-3071 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-68-12-3057 %K bunyavirus %K La Crosse virus %K M RNA sequence %I Microbiology Society, %X Summary The middle-size (M) genomic RNA of a New York State, U.S.A. isolate of La Crosse (LAC) virus has been cloned by a random priming procedure and its nucleotide sequence determined by the dideoxy method. The RNA was found to be 4526 nucleotides in length and to have a base composition of 34·2% U, 27·8% A, 20·6% C and 17·4% G. There is a single, long open reading frame in the viral complementary RNA that contains sufficient information to code for a protein of 1441 amino acids. In these respects, as in many others, the LAC virus M RNA and its encoded protein were very similar, if not identical, to those previously reported by other investigators for the closely related snowshoe hare virus. The M RNAs of the two viruses show 79% nucleotide sequence homology and 89% homology in the amino acid sequence of their encoded proteins. Several algorithms for predicting surface residues, as well as the Chou-Fasman rules for predicting secondary structure, were used to compare the LAC virus and snowshoe hare virus M gene proteins. These analyses identified 39 sites on the proteins as those most likely to be linear antigenic determinants that might contribute to the differences between the two viruses. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-68-12-3057