Location of envelope-specific and sarcoma-specific oligonucleotides on RNA of Schmidt-Ruppin Rous sarcoma virus.

Envelope-specific and sarcoma-specific nucleotide sequences have been located within the 10,000 nucleotides of the RNA of nondefective Schmidt-Ruppin Rous sarcoma virus (nd SR). For this purpose, about 30 RNase-T1-resistant oligonucleotides were ordered relative to the 3'-poly(A) terminus of the RNA, to construct an oligonucleotide map of the nd SR RNA. A cluster of seven envelope-specific oligonucleotides, identified by their absence from an otherwise very similar oligonucleotide map of an envelop-defective deletion mutant (which lacks the major viral glycoprotein), mapped at a distance of 2800-5000 nucleotides from the poly(A) end of nd SR RNA. A cluster of two sarcoma-specific oligonucleotides, identified by their absence from an otherwise nearly identical oligonucleotide map of a transformation-defective deletion mutant, mapped at a distance of 1000-2000 nucleotides from the poly(A) end of nd SR RNA. The oligonucleotide maps of nd SR and of the two deletion mutants were the same from the poly(A) end up to 650 nucleotides and included one terminal oligonucleotid, termed C, which is found in all avian tumor viruses tested so far. A possible gene order consistent with our data suggests that sarcoma-specific nucleotide sequences map between envelope-specific nucleotide sequences and the poly(A) end of the RNA.