Nucleocapsid protein gene of Junin arenavirus (cDNA sequence).

and is shown as the viral-complementary strand. The upstream non-coding sequence comprises 81 nucleotides, and the open reading frame codes for the N polypeptide, deduced to be 564 aminoacids long (mol. wt. 63,033 Da). Nucleotide and aminoacid sequences exhibit varying degrees of identity when compared to homologous regions of other arenavirus sequences. The comparison with Tacaribe virus (2), an arenavirus with a close antigenic relation to Junin, shows a 76% identity in aminoacid sequence, whereas with N proteins of other arenaviruses the identity ranges from 46 to 62%.