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A 1622 nucleotide region of the bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) genome, located between the second glycoprotein (GNs) gene and the polymerase (L) gene, has been cloned and sequenced in Australian (BB7721) and Chinese (Beijing-1) isolates of the virus. In the Australian isolate, the region contains five long open reading frames (ORFs) organized into three coding regions (α,β and γ), each of which are bound by a consensus transcription initiation and transcription termination- polyadenylation-like sequences. The α coding region contains three long ORFs (α1, α2 and α3). The a1 ORF encodes a 10 6 kDa polypeptide which contains hydrophobic and highly basic regions characteristic of a viroporin. The α2 ORF encodes a 13 7 kDa polypeptide and overlaps the a3 ORF which encodes a 5·7 kDa polypeptide. The β coding region contains a single long ORF encoding a polypeptide of 12·2 kDa. The y coding region, which does not occur in Adelaide River virus (ARV), contains a single long ORF encoding a polypeptide of 13·4 kDa. The Chinese isolate shares 91% nucleotide sequence identity with the Australian isolate. The organization of the α, β and γ coding regions is preserved and the sequences of the encoded polypeptides are similar to those of BB7721. The major transcription products of the region were identified in BB7721 as polycistronic a (α1-α2-α3) and β-γ mRNAs. Sequence similarities in the BEFV α-β and β-γ gene junctions, and the γ-L and β-L gene junctions of BEFV and ARV, suggest that the γ gene may have evolved from the β-gene by sequence duplication.
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