Determination of the first half of the coat protein cistron of bacteriophage Qbeta as an application of a mapping procedure for RNA fragments.

A method is described to classify, in regard to their location within the genome, fragments obtained by partial cleavage of 32P-labeled bacteriophage Qbeta RNA. The location of many fragments suitable for sequence analysis could be established using as markers 29 large RNase T1-resistant oligonucleotides with known map positions. Applying this method four fragments originating from the coat protein cistron were isolated and analyzed. The sequence of a segment of 239 nucleotides located immediately adjacent to the initiation triplet was determined to be G-C-A-A-A-A-U-U-A-G-A-G-A-C-U-G-U-U-A-C-U-U-U-A-G-G-U-A-A-C-A-U-C-G-G-G-A-A-A-G-A-U-G-G-A-A-A-A-C-A-A-A-C-U-C-U-G-G-U-C-C-U-C-A-A-U-C-C-G-C-G-U-G-G-G-G-U-A-A-A-U-C-C-C-A-C-U-A-A-C-G-G-C-G-U-U-G-C-C-U-C-G-C-U-U-U-C-A-C-A-A-G-C-G-G-G-U-G-C-A-G-U-U-C-C-U-G-C-G-C-U-G-G-A-G-A-A-G-C-G-U-G-U-U-A-C-C-G-U-U-U-C-G-G-U-A-U-C-U-C-A-G-C-C-U-U-C-U-C-G-C-A-A-U-C-G-U-A-A-G-A-A-C-U-A-C-A-A-G-G-U-C-C-A-G-G-U-U-A-A-G-A-U-C-C-A-G-A-A-C-C-C-G-A-C-C-G-C-U-U-G-C-A-C-U-G-C-A-A-A-C-G-G-U-U-C-U-U-Gp. The primary structure and the secondary structure model derived from it did not provide any evidence of homology with the corresponding RNA region of bacteriophage MS2.