RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Mounir, Samir A1 Talbot, Pierre J.YR 1993 T1 Molecular characterization of the S protein gene of human coronavirus OC43 JF Journal of General Virology, VO 74 IS 9 SP 1981 OP 1987 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-74-9-1981 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1465-2099, AB The gene encoding the spike protein of the OC43 strain of human coronavirus (HCV-OC43) was cloned and sequenced. The complete nucleotide sequence revealed an open reading frame of 4062 nucleotides encoding a protein of 1353 amino acids with a predicted M r of 150078. Structural features include 22 N-glycosylation sites, an N-terminal hydrophobic signal sequence of 17 amino acids, an hydrophilic cysteine-rich sequence of 35 amino acids near the C terminus, and a potential proteolytic cleavage site (RRSR) between amino acid residues 758 and 759, yielding S1 and S2 segments of 84730 and 65366 M r, respectively. The predicted amino acid sequence of the spike protein of HCV-OC43 has 91% identity with that of the Mebus strain of bovine coronavirus, revealing more sequence divergence in the putative bulbous part (S1) than in the predicted stem region (S2)., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-74-9-1981