TY - JA AU - Futterer,J. AU - Brau,M.P.V. AU - Dasgupta,I. AU - Hohn,T. AU - Hull,R. AU - Potrykus,I. TI - Splicing in a plant pararetrovirus SN - 0042-6822 U1 - 95-114994 PY - 1994/// KW - Acids KW - Cell structure KW - Chromosomes KW - Cytoplasm KW - Cytoplasmic organelles KW - Genomes KW - AGROVOC KW - Gramineae KW - Nucleic acids KW - Nucleic compounds KW - Nucleus KW - Organic acids KW - Oryza KW - Plant diseases KW - Plant viruses KW - Protoplasm KW - Viruses N1 - references US (DNAL 448.8 V81) N2 - Analysis of expression in rice cells of plasmids in which an ATG-less chloramphenicol acetyl transferase ORF was placed in frame with the coding sequence of the pararetrovirus rice tungro bacilliform virus (RTBV) ORF IV, and which contained much of the upstream full-length transcript sequence of RTBV, gave evidence to suggest that a splicing event occurred. Reverse transcription/PCR of RNA from transfected protoplasts and from RTBV-infected plants yielded a product which confirmed that the 5' end of ORF IV was spliced in frame to a short ORF (sORF) in the RTBV leader sequence removing an intron of about 6.3 kb. Most of the translation is initiated at the ATG codon in the sORF with only about 10% at the ORF IV ATG codon. The efficiency of splicing appears to be inversely related to the length of the intron. The finding of splicing in a pararetrovirus blurs the differences between them and retroviruses but is in accord with the hypothesis that retroelements acquire genes and sequences which adapt them to specific niches T2 - Virology (USA). (1 Feb 1994). v. 198(2) p. 663-670 ER -