Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Virus Res. 2014 Jan 30;183:30–40. doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2014.01.018

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the bicistronic MRV M3 mRNA.

Figure 1

The MRV M3 mRNA encodes two carboxy-coterminal proteins, μNS and μNSC. Translation of μNS initiates at the 5′ proximal AUG, whereas translation of μNSC initiates at the second AUG codon (amino acid position 41). A third in frame translation product, herein denoted AUG57, putatively initiates from the third AUG codon (amino acid position 57). WT M3 mRNAs possess 5′ UTRs that are 18 nucleotides in length. M3-9 mRNAs possess 5′ UTRs 8 nts in length (nts 9–18 were deleted), M3-4 mRNAs possess 5′ UTRs 3 nts in length (nts 4–18 were deleted), and M3-1 mRNAs possess 5′ UTRs comprising a single G residue. ΔAUG1 encodes a full-length M3 mRNA in which the 5′ proximal AUG codon was mutated to CUA, and ΔAUG2 encodes a full-length M3 mRNA in which the second AUG codon was mutated to UUG.