Nucleotide sequence of the large double-stranded RNA segment of bacteriophage phi 6: genes specifying the viral replicase and transcriptase

The genome of the lipid-containing bacteriophage phi 6 contains three segments of double-stranded RNA. We determined the nucleotide sequence of cDNA derived from the largest RNA segment (L). This segment specifies the procapsid proteins necessary for transcription and replication of the phi 6 genome. The coding sequences of the four proteins on this segment were identified on the basis of size and the correlation of predicted N-terminal amino acid sequences with those found through analysis of isolated proteins. This report completes the sequence analysis of phi 6. This constitutes the first complete sequence of a double-stranded RNA genome virus.