The complete sequence and coding content of snowshoe hare bunyavirus small (S) viral RNA species

Abstract
The complete sequence of the snail (S) viral RNA species of snowshoe hare (SSH) bunyavirus has been determined, principally fran a DNA copy of the RNA cloned in the E.coli plasmid pBr322. The viral S FNA (negative sense strand) is 982 nucleotides long (3.3 × 105 daltons) with conplernentary 5′ and 3′ end sequences. It has a base composition of 30.5%U, 25.8%A, 24.9%C and 18.7%G. In the viral complementary (plus sense) strand there are two overlapping open reading frames initiated by methionine codons. One reading Htdme codes for a 26.8 × 103 dalton protein, the other for a 10.5 × 103 dalton protein. The larger gene product is presumably related to the viral nucleoprotein (N) that is coded by the S Hffi (Gentsch and Bishop (1978) J.Virol. 28, 417–419). The smaller gene product is probably related to the recently identified S RNA coded nonstructural protein (NSS) induced in virus infected cells (Fuller and Bishop (1982) J.Virol. 41, 643–648).