Recently, a novel phenomenon of horizontal gene transfer of helicase-encoding sequence from positive-stranded RNA viruses to LINE transposons in insect genomes was described. TRAS family transposons encoding an ORF2 protein, which comprised all typical functional domains and an additional helicase domain, were found to be preserved in many families during the evolution of the order Lepidoptera....

Open reading frame 2 (ORF2) of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) codes for the 233-amino-acid capsid protein (CP). Baculovirus-based vaccines that express only ORF2 are protective against clinical disease following experimental challenge or natural infection. The goal of this study was to identify regions in CP preferentially recognized by sera from experimentally infected and vaccinated pigs an...

The tol-oprL region in Pseudomonas aeruginosa appears to be involved in pyocin uptake and required for cell viability. The complete nucleotide sequences of the tolQRA and oprL genes as well as the incomplete sequences of tolB and orf2 have been previously reported. In addition, the sequence of a P. aeruginosa iron-regulated gene (pig6) has been described and found to share homology with an open...

Comparison of the organization and sequence of the hao (hydroxylamine oxidoreductase) gene clusters from the gammaproteobacterial autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacterium (aAOB) Nitrosococcus oceani and the betaproteobacterial aAOB Nitrosospira multiformis and Nitrosomonas europaea revealed a highly conserved gene cluster encoding the following proteins: hao, hydroxylamine oxidoreductase; orf2, ...

Determining the subcellular localization of the L1 ORF2 protein (ORF2p) has been impossible to date because of technical limitations in detecting either endogenous or overexpressed forms of the protein. Here we report visualization of the full-length ORF2p in cultured human cells following expression in a modified vaccinia virus/T7 RNA polymerase (MVA/T7RP) system. The MVA/T7RP system was used ...

Rhopalosiphum padi virus (RhPV) is one of several picorna-like viruses that infect insects; sequence analysis has revealed distinct differences between these agents and mammalian picornaviruses. RhPV has a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome of about 10 kb; unlike the genomes of Picornaviridae, however, this genome contains two long open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 encodes the virus nonst...

As a preliminary step in the development of vector systems, we have isolated and begun to characterize small, cryptic plasmids from several strains of the rumen bacterium Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens. We present here the complete nucleotide sequence of Butyrivibrio plasmid pOM1, which was isolated from B. fibrisolvens Bu49. While it is very similar in size to the previously characterized Butyrivib...

The genome of Schistosoma mansoni contains a proviral form of a retrovirus-like long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon, designated BOUDICCA: Sequence and structural characterization of the new mobile genetic element, which was found in bacterial artificial chromosomes prepared from S. mansoni genomic DNA, revealed the presence of three putative open reading frames (ORFs) bounded by direct L...

Viruses within the genus Norovirus of the family Caliciviridae are the major cause of acute, nonbacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Human noroviruses are genetically diverse, with up to 57% divergence in capsid protein sequences, and comprise three genogroups. The significance of such genetic diversity is not yet understood. The discovery of murine norovirus (MNV) and its ability to productive...

In a search for strains producing biocides with a wide spectrum of activity, a new strain was isolated. This strain was taxonomically characterized as Streptomyces rochei F20, and the chemical structure of the bioactive product extracted from its fermentation broth was determined to be a mixture of streptothricins. From a genomic library of the producer strain prepared in the heterologous host ...