Sequence analysis of the rice dwarf phytoreovirus segment S3 transcript encoding for the major structural core protein of 114 kDa.

The primary structure of rice dwarf phytoreovirus (RDV) genome segment S3 was determined. RDV S3 consists of 3195 nucleotides. A 14-bp segment-specific inverted repeat is located immediately adjacent to the conserved terminal sequence (5'GGCAAA---UGAU3'). A single long open reading frame encoding for 1019 amino acids with an Mr of 114,289 is also identified. In order to investigate the localization of the predicted polypeptide, we determined the amino acid sequence of the 26-kDa peptide fragment obtained from the structural core protein digested by Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease. The sequence of the fragment was found in the translational product presumed from the nucleotide sequence of RDV S3, indicating that RDV S3 encodes the major structural core protein of 114 kDa.