Provirus of M7 baboon endogenous virus: nucleotide sequence of the gag-pol region

Abstract

A 3023-base nucleotide sequence of the M7 baboon endogenous virus genome, spanning the 5'' noncoding region as well as the entire gag gene and part of the pol gene, is reported. Within the 562-base 5'' noncoding region, a 21-base sequence complementary to the OH terminus of tRNAPro is located immediately downstream from the long terminal repeat. Amino acid sequences were deduced from the 1596 nucleotides comprising the gag gene, and the 4 structural gag polypeptides, p12, p15, p30 and p10, appeared to be coded contiguously. Only 1 termination codon interrupted the M7 gag and pol genes. Evidently, 55 additional amino acids may be attached to the NH2 terminus of the gag precursor protein. Such a sequence was not detected in virions or in virus-infected cells. With the exception of the p15 region, nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the gag and pol regions of M7 virus exhibited strong homologies to those of Moloney leukemia virus.