DNA sequences similar to those around the simian virus 40 origin of replication are present in the monkey genome.

We report the molecular cloning of African green monkey genomic DNA segments that include regions of homology to the origin of replication of simian virus 40 (SV40). Three clearly different cloned segments 14 to 17 kilobase pairs (kb) long were isolated from a genomic library in lambda phage. We estimate that each of the three is repeated fewer than four times in the monkey genome. The SV40-like regions represent a small portion of the cloned segments, and these regions cross hybridize only weakly with one another. One of the three segments is described here in detail. Although the entire segment occurs only once or twice in the monkey genome, it contains DNA sequences (other than the SV40-like sequences) that are repeated elsewhere in the genome including in the other two cloned segments. The homology to SV40 is contained within about 300 base pairs of monkey DNA and is limited to the region around the viral replication origin. The nucleotide sequence of the SV40-like region was determined. It contains a large number of short stretches homologous to three specific noncoding domains around the SV40 origin of replication: the 27-base-pair region of dyad symmetry, the first set of (short) repeats that occur just on the late side of the origin, and, further in the late direction, the two 72-base-pair-long repeats. Although these components are grouped in the monkey DNA, as they are in SV40 DNA, their relative juxtaposition is scrambled.