Recombination between plus and minus strands of turnip crinkle virus

Turnip crinkle virus (TCV), a small monopartite RNA virus, is associated with several subviral RNAs, some of which are the products of recombination between the genomic RNA and an unrelated satellite RNA (sat-RNA D). As part of a study on the nonrandom sequences found at the junctions of nearly all TCV recombinant molecules, we have characterized a novel recombinant (D/TCV950) that was formed from sat-RNA D and both the plus and minus strands of the genomic RNA. D/TCV950 (517 nt) is composed of sat-RNA D at the 5'-end, joined to four nontemplate derived uracil residues, and then three segments of TCV genomic RNA, one of which is from the complementary strand. Sequences at the right sides of the junctions were similar to sequences previously found at the right sides of junctions in other TCV-associated recombinant molecules. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a recombinant molecule formed from both coding and complementary strands of a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus.