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Identification of a potential protease‐coding gene in the genomes of bovine leukemia and human T‐cell leukemia viruses
Author(s) -
Sagata Noriyuki,
Yasunaga Teruo,
Ikawa Yoji
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(84)81244-2
Subject(s) - open reading frame , gene , biology , genome , bovine leukemia virus , leukemia , virology , protease , genetics , coding region , microbiology and biotechnology , peptide sequence , virus , biochemistry , enzyme
The genomes of bovine leukemia and human T‐cell leukemia viruses both contain an unidentified region between the gag and pol genes. These regions harbor an open reading frame that is in a different phase from the reading frames of the gag and pol genes. Based on the deduced amino acid sequences, we show here that they potentially encode a gag precursor‐cleaving protease, which is known to be fused to the gag and pol products of avian and murine retroviruses, respectively. This finding raises the interesting question of the expression and evolution of retroviral genes.