title: Further characterization of mRNA's of mouse hepatitis virus: presence of common 5'-end nucleotides.
abstract: The mouse hepatitis virus strain A59 codes for seven RNA species in the infected cells. These virus-specific RNAs were found to be polysome associated and therefore likely to represent mRNA's. All of them have common 3'-end sequences (Lai et al., J. Virol. 39:823-834, 1981). Their structure was further studied with respect to their 5'-end sequences. It was found that all of these mRNA's contained cap structures at their 5' ends. Furthermore, the cap-containing oligonucleotides which represent the sequences immediately adjacent to the 5' ends were found to be the same for most, if not all, of the seven virus-specific mRNA's. These sequences are also identical to the 5'-end sequences of the virion RNA genome. The 5'-end sequences were tentatively determined to be 5'-cap-N-UAAG. The presence of the common nucleotides in all of the virus-specific RNAs in mouse hepatitis virus strain A59 suggests several possible mechanisms of synthesis for these RNAs. The significance of these findings is discussed.
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D006517:Murine hepatitis virus / Q000235:genetics*; D009843:Oligoribonucleotides / Q000032:analysis; D011132:Polyribosomes / Q000032:analysis; D012315:RNA Caps / Q000032:analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D009843:Oligoribonucleotides; D012315:RNA Caps; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012367:RNA, Viral