Nucleotide Sequence of the Capsid Protein Gene and 3′ Non-coding Region of Papaya Mosaic Virus RNA

The nucleotide sequences of cDNA clones corresponding to the 3′ OH end of papaya mosaic virus RNA have been determined. The 3′-terminal sequence obtained was 900 nucleotides in length, excluding the poly(A) tail, and contained an open reading frame capable of giving rise to a protein of 214 amino acid residues with an M r of 22930. This protein was identified as the viral capsid protein. The 3′ non-coding region of PMV genome RNA was about 121 nucleotides long [excluding the poly(A) tail] and homologous to the complementary sequence of the non-coding region at the 5′ end of PMV RNA. A long open reading frame was also found in the predicted 5′ end region of the negative strand.