Similarity in gene organization and homology between proteins of animal picornaviruses and a plant comovirus suggest common ancestry of these virus families

The amino acid sequences deduced from the nucleic acid sequences of several animal picornaviruses and cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), a plant virus, were compared. Good homology was found between CPMV and the picornaviruses in the region of the picornavirus 2C (P2-X protein), VPg, 3C pro (proteinase) an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nucleic acids research 1984-09, Vol.12 (18), p.7251-7267
Main Authors: Argos, P, Kamer, G, Nicklin, M J, Wimmer, E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Base Sequence
Biological Evolution
Comovirus
Cowpea mosaic virus
DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases - genetics
Genes
Genes, Viral
Mosaic Viruses - genetics
Peptide Hydrolases - genetics
Picornaviridae - genetics
Picornavirus
Poliovirus
Species Specificity
Viral Proteins - genetics
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Summary:The amino acid sequences deduced from the nucleic acid sequences of several animal picornaviruses and cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), a plant virus, were compared. Good homology was found between CPMV and the picornaviruses in the region of the picornavirus 2C (P2-X protein), VPg, 3C pro (proteinase) and 3D pol (RNA polymerase) regions. The CPMV B genome was found to have a similar gene organization to the picornaviruses. A comparison of the 3C pro (proteinase) regions of all of the available picornavirus sequences and CPMV allowed us to identify residues that are completely conserved; of these only two residues, Cys-147 and His-161 (poliovirus proteinase) could be the reactive residues of the active site of a proteinase with analogous mechanism to a known proteinase. We conclude that the proteinases encoded by these viruses are probably cysteine proteinases, mechanistically related, but not homologous to papain.
ISSN:0305-1048
1362-4962