Nucleotide Sequence of Beet Necrotic Yellow Vein Virus RNA-2

Abstract
The complete nucleotide sequence of beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV) RNA-2 has been determined from a study of cloned cDNA. The RNA sequence is 4612 nucleotides in length, excluding the poly(A) tail. There are six long open reading frames (ORFs) in the sequence. The viral coat protein cistron is the ORF nearest to the 5'' terminus and the coat protein amber termination codon is followed by a long in-phase ORF. A corresponding readthrough polypeptide with the coat protein sequence as its N terminus had been detected in previous in vitro translation studies. Four additional ORFs encoding potential polypeptides of mol. wt. 42000 (42 K), 12.5K, 14.8K and 14.4K are present in the sequence and evidence is presented that the 42K polypeptide is expressed, probably from a subgenomic messenger RNA. There is extensive homology between sequences near the 3'' termini of RNA-2, RNA-3 and RNA-4 of BNYVV.