The 50 untranslated region (UTR) of RNA1 is 256 nt in
length. The first eight nucleotides of the extreme 50 terminus
of RNA1, UUGGAAAA, were identical to those of
RNA2. The 30-UTR consists of 618 nt, excluding the
poly(A) tail. RNA1 contains a single ORF. Translation of
this ORF (6309 nt) leads to a polyprotein composed of
2102 aa with a molecular mass of 235.1 kDa. The deduced
amino acid sequence of the RNA1 ORF was compared
with those of proteins deposited in the GenBank database.
The N-terminal region of the putative ORF product contains
motifs A (GXXXXGKS motif) to C of the NTPbinding
helicase (HEL) of superfamily 3 of positive-strand
RNA viruses [9]. Following the HEL, a motif (E-x1-T-x3-
N-x4-R, x refers to any amino acid) with characteristics of a
known viral genome-linked protein (VPg) was found in
which the residue T (italicized) substituted for the Y
reported previously