Biosynthesis of reovirus-specified polypeptides. The s1 mRNA synthesized in vivo is structurally and functionally indistinguishable from in vitro-synthesized s1 mRNA and encodes two polypeptides, sigma 1a and sigma 1bNS.

The structural and functional properties of the reovirus serotype 1 (Lang strain) s1 mRNA were examined. Reovirus s-class mRNAs, synthesized either in vivo within infected mouse L cells or in vitro by chymotrypsin-derived cores of purified virions, were purified by filter-hybridization using cDNA clones of the S-class genome segments. S1 cDNA-selected mRNA encoded the synthesis of the Mr approximately 12,000 nonstructural polypeptide designated sigma 1bNS in addition to the well-established structural polypeptide sigma 1, now designated sigma 1a. The coding properties of in vivo- and in vitro-synthesized s1 mRNA were equivalent: both encoded sigma 1a and sigma 1bNS. Primer extension analysis of s1 mRNA revealed a single major 5' terminus for both in vivo- and in vitro-synthesized s1 mRNA. These results suggest that there is a single transcript of the reovirus S1 genome segment which is functionally dicistronic, and likely encodes both sigma 1a and sigma 1bNS.