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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1987 Aug;84(15):5134–5138. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.15.5134

Gene overlap and site-specific attenuation of transcription of the viral polymerase L gene of human respiratory syncytial virus.

P L Collins, R A Olmsted, M K Spriggs, P R Johnson, A J Buckler-White
PMCID: PMC298808  PMID: 2440043

Abstract

Sequence analysis of the gene encoding polymerase L protein of respiratory syncytial virus showed that L-gene transcription initiates within its upstream neighbor, the gene encoding the 22-kDa protein 22K. This is an exception to the canonical mode of sequential transcription of nonoverlapping genes described for other nonsegmented negative-strand RNA viruses. As a consequence of the gene overlap, the termination/polyadenylylation signal for the 22K gene is located at nucleotides 56-68 within the L gene. L-gene transcription yielded two RNAs: an abundant, truncated, polyadenylylated transcript resulting from termination at the internal signal and a markedly less abundant large polyadenylylated transcript representing the complete L gene. This result showed that the internal termination/polyadenylylation signal is an attenuator of L-gene transcription.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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