Complete nucleotide sequence of RNA 3 of rice stripe virus: an ambisense coding strategy.

The RNA 3 of rice stripe virus (RSV) isolate T was cloned and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The complete primary structure was found to consist of 2504 nucleotides. One putative open reading frame (ORF), between nucleotides 2412 and 1444 in the 5'-proximal region of the virus complementary-sense RNA, encoded a 322 amino acid protein with an Mr of 35,134 that was identified as the coat protein. The other ORF, between nucleotides 66 and 701 in the 5'-proximal region of the virus-sense RNA, encoded a 211 amino acid protein with an Mr of 23,874. An intergenic non-coding region (742 nucleotides) between the two ORFs contains oligo(A)- and oligo(U)-rich regions that can be arranged into a 126 base pair stem configuration. These results suggest that RSV RNA 3 has an ambisense coding strategy.