The primary sequence of the late region of polyoma virus DNA II. The expression of the late genes and comparison with DNA sequences of SV40 and BKV.

The nucleotide sequence of the late region of the polyoma virus genome has been deduced, which codes for the major capsid protein VP1 and the C-terminal region of the minor proteins VP2 and VP3. The amino acid sequence of VP1 predicted from the nucleotide sequence is in good agreement with the partial N-terminal sequence 1 and amino acid composition of VP1 2,3. When both nucleotide and amono acid sequences are compared with their counterparts in the related viruses, SV40 4,5 and BKV (R. Young, personal communication), extensive homologies are found along the entire regions of the viral genes. Maximum homologies appear to occur in the regions which code for the C-terminal of VP1, on the contrary of the result of heteroduplex analysis 6 with 6 with SV40 and polyoma virus DNAs.