Construction of a recombinant vaccinia virus which expresses immunoreactive plant virus proteins

The nucleotide sequence of the coding region of tobacco etch virus genomic RNA: evidence for the synthesis of a single polyprotein

The complete nucleotide sequence of the tobacco etch virus (TEV) RNA genome has been determined excepting only the nucleotide(s) present at the extreme 5' terminus. The assembled TEV genomic sequence is 9496 nucleotides in length followed by a polyadenylated tract ranging from 20 to 140 residues. A computer search of the sequence reveals the following. A 5' untranslated region, rich in adenosine and uridine, is present between nucleotides 1 and 144. A putative initiation codon, at nucleotides 145-147, marks the beginning of a large open-reading frame (ORF) which ends with an opal (UGA) termination codon at positions 9307-9309. A 186-nucleotide untranslated region is present between the termination codon of the ORF and the beginning of the 3' polyadenylated region. The predicted translation product of this ORF is a 3054 amino acid polyprotein with a mol wt of 345,943. A function for the large (54,000 Mr) nuclear inclusion protein is suggested by a comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence with a protein data bank. This protein displays biochemical similarities to other viral RNA-dependent, RNA polymerases.

Human poxvirus infection after the eradication of smallpox

There occurred during the planning and publication of this review: the twentieth anniversary of the start of the intensified WHO Smallpox Eradication Campaign and the tenth anniversary of the last endemic case of smallpox; debate about the fate of smallpox virus and possibly its irrevocable destruction; claims that mass smallpox vaccination campaigns may have helped the spread of AIDS in Africa; publication of the definitive account of Smallpox and its Eradication (Fenner et al. 1988), and the closure of the WHO Smallpox Eradication Unit (SEU). It is therefore perhaps an appropriate moment to assess the current status of human poxvirus infections and their epidemiology; this review concentrates on those viruses antigenically related to smallpox (i.e. orthopoxviruses).