Sequence analysis of adenovirus DNA: complete nucleotide sequence of the spliced 5' noncoding region of adenovirus 2 hexon messenger RNA.

The complete nucleotide sequence of the 5' noncoding region of the adenovirus 2 hexon messenger RNA has been established by sequence analysis of reverse transcripts. Such transcripts were generated by extension of specific single-stranded DNA primers with reverse transcriptase after hybridization to purified hexon mRNA. The total length of the 5' noncoding region was determined to be 240 nucleotides, of which the spliced tripartite leader sequence contributes 202 nucleotides including the terminal m7G. The sizes of the different segments of the tripartite leader were estimated by comparing the established mRNA sequence with the genomic sequences for the first and third leader segments, and were found to be 42 nucleotides for the first segment, 71 nucleotides for the second and 89 nucleotides for the third. The estimates are ambiguous, however, due to the presence of tandemly repeated sequences at both ends of the intervening sequence between the third leader segment and the body of the hexon mRNA. The sequence of the leader allows the formation of hydrogen-bonded interactions with the 3' end of 18S ribosomal RNA near the capped 5' end and also close to the initiator AUG.