Abstract
The nucleotide sequence of the rakkyo strain of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV-R) RNA corresponding to about 2, 000 nucleotides from the 3′ terminus was determined. The sequence contained the 30K protein gene, coat protein gene and 3′ non-coding region which are located in nucleotides 687 to 1493, 205 to 684 and 1 to 204 from the 3′ terminus of the genome, respectively. Sequence analysis showed that TMV-R conserved a higher degree of nucleotide sequence homology with those of TMV-common strains (-OM and -vulgare) than those of four other tobamoviruses. Comparing the deduced amino acid sequence of the coat protein between TMV-R and -OM strains, 8 substitutions were found in total 158 amino acids. The deduced 30K protein homology between TMV-R and -OM was 95.5%, showing 12 amino acid substitutions. TMV-R could efficiently infect and multiply in protoplasts of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Bright Yellow (BY), differing from the previous data using intact BY plants. The results indicated that the amino acid substitutions in the 30K protein might be associated with deficiency of function as transport protein for TMV-R in BY.
