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Title: MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF THE GENOME OF MAIZE RAYADO FINO VIRUS, THE TYPE MEMBER OF THE GENUS MARAFIVIRUS

Author
item Hammond, Rosemarie
item RAMIREZ, PILAR - SAN JOSE COSTA RICA

Submitted to: Virology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/13/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Maize, for many people in developing countries, is the staff of life. Maize rayado fino virus (MRFV) is of great agronomic importance as it produces significant yield losses in maize throughout Central and South America. The virus is insect transmitted, yet control by insecticides is ineffective, costly, and ecologically dangerous. A complete characterization of the virus is essential to gaining an understanding of the disease process and to enable the design of effective disease control strategies. We have determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the MRFV genome, an accomplishment that will facilitate studies to unravel how the viral genome and its products interact with the host to produce disease. These results are of interest to scientists who study virus-host interactions, and to those who are currently designing innovation disease control strategies for MRFV and other viral diseases of maize.

Technical Abstract: The complete nucleotide sequence of the single-stranded RNA genome of maize rayado fino virus (MRFV), the type member of the genus Marafivirus, is 6305 nucleotides (nts) in length and contains two putative open reading frames (ORFs). The largest ORF (nt 97-6180) encodes a polyprotein of 224 kDa with sequence similarities at its 5' terminus to the replication-associated proteins of other viruses with positive-strand RNA genomes, and the papain-like protease domain found in tymoviruses. The 3' terminus of the 224 kDa ORF also encodes the MRFV capsid protein. A smaller, overlapping ORF (nt 302-1561) encodes a putative protein of 43 kDa with unknown function but with limited sequence similarities to putative movement proteins of tymoviruses. The nucleotide sequence and proposed genome expression strategy of MRFV is most closely related to that of oat blue dwarf virus (OBDV). Unlike OBDV, MRFV RNA does not appear to contain a poly (A) tail, and it encodes a putative second overlapping open reading frame.