THE COMPLETE NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF THE RNA-3 OF LILAC RING MOTTLE ILARVIRUS

The nucleotide sequence of lilac ring mottle ilarvirus (LRMV) RNA 3 consists of 2287 nucleotides and contains two open reading frames (ORF). The first encodes a putative translation product of 285 amino acids (M(r) 31308) and the second encodes a putative translation product of 206 amino acids (M(r) 22751). The 3' terminal nucleotides can be folded into a loop structure similar to models proposed for other ilarviruses, although the last four nucleotides are UCGC not AUGC. The absence of the terminal AUGC motif in both LRMV and two isolates of apple mosaic ilarvirus (ApMV) provides circumstantial evidence which confirms the importance of AUGC moths upstream of the terminal AUGC in the protein binding function associated with these models. Although the 3' terminal structure of LRMV exhibits similarities to that of ApMV, comparison of the putative translation products of the two ORFs with similar products for other ilaviruses showed greatest identity with citrus leaf rugose (CiLRV) and citrus variegation (CVV) ilarviruses both of which are members of subgroup 2 of this genus. Thus it is proposed that LRMV be reassigned to subgroup 2 rather than remaining in its current subgroup, 7, or being reassigned to subgroup 3 which contains ApMV.