The nucleotide sequences of copia and copia-related RNA in Drosophila virus-like particles (original) (raw)

Nature volume 315, pages 773–776 (1985)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 August 1985

Abstract

We have shown previously that Drosophila cells contain virus-like particles (VLPs) containing 5-kilobase (kb) RNA that hybridizes to a transposable element, termed copia. We have suggested that VLPs and copia are derivatives of viral particles and proviral forms, respectively, of ‘_copia_’ retrovirus, a putative Drosophila retrovirus1. To further clarify the relationship between copia and _copia_-related RNA in VLPs (VLP H-RNA), we determined and compared their nucleotide sequences. VLP H-RNA was found to be an unspliced, genome-sized transcript of copia, and, like retroviral genome RNA, VLP H-RNA is terminally redundant with termini localized in the long terminal repeats (LTRs) of copia. VLP H-RNA contains two long open reading frames (ORFs), one of which includes the coding sequence for a predominant VLP protein of relative molecular mass (_M_r) 31,000 (31K). Here we show that, in contrast to 17.6 ORF2 (ref. 2), ORFs of copia have no extensive amino-acid sequence homology to the RT region2 of the reverse transcriptase of retrovirus in vertebrates. Because of a one-base insertion/deletion, the two ORFs in VLP H-RNA are fused and become a single, longer ORF in a genomic copia.

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Author notes

  1. Yasufumi Emori
    Present address: Department of Molecular Biology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Honkomagome, Bunkyoku, Tokyo, 113, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cell Biology, Mitsubishi-Kasei Institute of Life Sciences, 11 Minamiooya, Machida-shi Tokyo, 194, Japan
    Yasufumi Emori & Tadayoshi Shiba
  2. Bioscience Laboratory, Mitsubishi Chemical Industries Ltd, 1000 Kamoshida-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, 227, Japan
    Shigenori Kanaya
  3. Department of Biochemistry, Kyushu University 60, School of Medicine, Fukuoka, 812, Japan
    Satoshi Inouye, Shunji Yuki & Kaoru Saigo

Authors

  1. Yasufumi Emori
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  2. Tadayoshi Shiba
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  3. Shigenori Kanaya
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  4. Satoshi Inouye
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  5. Shunji Yuki
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  6. Kaoru Saigo
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Emori, Y., Shiba, T., Kanaya, S. et al. The nucleotide sequences of copia and _copia_-related RNA in Drosophila virus-like particles.Nature 315, 773–776 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/315773a0

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