Figure 4.

Predicted secondary structures around the 9-bp conserved sequence of the CRE region of Theiler’s virus, Mengo virus, and EMCV. The secondary structures shown are the structures predicted by Palmenberg and Sgro (27), by folding the full length viral RNA molecule. For Theiler’s virus (TMEV), the sequence of strain BeAn was replaced by the sequence of strain DA1, used in this study. Local structure predictions done with the Fold algorithm (28) predict an identical stem and loop structure for TMEV strains DA1, BeAn, and GDVII. Outlined residues are the nine nucleotides that are highly conserved among cardioviruses.