Nucleotide sequence and possible ambisense coding strategy of rice stripe virus RNA segment 2

The complete nucleotide sequence (3514 nucleotides) of RNA segment 2 of rice stripe virus (RSV), the prototype member of tenuivirus group, was determined. In the virus-sense RNA an open reading frame (ORF) is present which encodes a 199 amino acid protein of M(r) 22,762. Another long ORF encoding an 834 amino acid protein with M(r) 94,047 (94K) exists in the virus-complementary RNA. Between these two ORFs, there is a long non-coding intergenic region of 299 nucleotides. The sequence suggests that RNA 2 has an ambisense coding strategy as found for RSV RNAs 3 and 4. The putative 94K protein carries stretches with an amino acid sequence showing weak similarity to parts of the membrane glycoproteins of Punta Toro and Uukuniemi phleboviruses of the family Bunyaviridae, suggesting a possible distinct evolutionary relationship between the animal phleboviruses and the plant tenuiviruses.