Nucleotide sequence of the satellite of peanut stunt virus reveals structural homologies with viroids and certain nuclear and mitochondrial introns.

Peanut stunt virus-associated RNA 5 (PARNA 5), the satellite of a plant cucumovirus, is a linear RNA of 393 nucleotides with a 5' cap and a 3' hydroxyl group. Determination of its nucleotide sequence has revealed two consecutive open reading frames that together extend most of its length. Sequences at the 5' and 3' ends are homologous with those of the satellite of the related cucumber mosaic virus, and the double-stranded forms of both satellites contain an unpaired guanosine at the 3' end of the minus strand. However, little other homology exists between the two satellites. In contrast, PARNA 5 has several regions of 90% sequence homology with various plant viroids, including sequences of the conserved central region of most viroids. Such homologies suggest a common origin with viroids coupled with specific adaptation as a linear RNA. The presence within PARNA 5 of conserved intron sequences essential to proper RNA processing suggests a possible origin from plant introns and/or involvement of such sequences in the processing of PARNA 5 multimers to monomers at some stage of replication.