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G M Air

Publications and source records attributed to G M Air.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

Nucleotide sequence coding for the N-terminal region of the matrix protein influenza virus.

After polyadenylation in vitro of the influenza virus RNA segment which contains the coding information for the matrix protein, a cDNA copy can be made using the primer p(dT)8-dA and reverse transcriptase. The sequence of 166 nucleotides of the cDNA was determined by a modification [Brownlee, G. G. & Cartwright, E. M. (1977) J. Mol. Biol, 114, 93--117] of the plus/minus method [Sanger, F. & Coulson, A. R. (1975) J. Mol. Biol. 94, 441--481] and adaptation of the "dideoxy" method [Sanger, F., Nicklen, S. & Coulson, A. R. (1977) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 74, 5463--5467] for sequencing DNA. The cDNA sequences is of the same sense as the mRNA for matrix protein and contains a potential initiating codon, d(ATG), at position 26--28. When matrix protein purified from virus particles was digested with chymotrypsin or trypsin and the amino acid compositions of separated peptides determined, one peptide containing nine amino acids found which had a composition corresponding to that predicted by the cDNA sequence following the first methionine codon, confirming that protein synthesis initiates at this position. The compositions of four other peptides matches those predicted from the nucleotide sequence. There is no processing of the N terminus of the protein before incorporation into the virus particle except for removal of the N-terminal methionine and addition of a "blocking" group on the resulting N-terminal serine residue.

Amino Acid Sequence

Antigenic drift in type A influenza virus: peptide mapping and antigenic analysis of A/PR/8/34 (HON1) variants selected with monoclonal antibodies.

Variants of A/PR/8/34 (HON1) influenza virus, having hemagglutinin molecules with probably a single altered antigenic determinant, were isolated by growing the virus in the presence of the monoclonal hybridoma antibody PEG-1. The variants were analyzed by peptide mapping and characterized antigenically by using PEG-1 and four other monoclonal hybridoma antibodies to PR8 hemagglutinin. Peptide maps of the large hemagglutinin polypeptide, HA1, from 8 out of 10 variants showed a single changed peptide. This peptide from two of the variants was analyzed, and in each case a serine residue in the wild-type hemagglutinin was replaced by leucine in the variant. Although these eight variants showed identical peptide maps, one could be discriminated antigenically from the others with one of the hybridomas. (The peptide maps represented about one-third of the HA1 molecule.) Of the other two variants, one gave the same HA1 map as the wild type, but could be distinguished antigenically from wild-type virus by two of the hybridomas. The other was unique, and could be distinguished, both antigenically and by peptide mapping, from the other variants. Since a large number of the variants selected with PEG-1 showed the same peptide change, it is likely that this alteration in amino acid sequence (serine to leucine) was responsible for the inability of the variants to bind PEG-1 monoclonal antibody. We do not know, however, whether the changed amino acids were located within the antigenic sites or whether the change occurred somewhere else in the hemagglutinin molecule and altered the determinants through conformational changes.

Amino Acids

Nucleotide sequence of bacteriophage phi X174 DNA.

A DNA sequence for the genome of bacteriophage phi X174 of approximately 5,375 nucleotides has been determined using the rapid and simple 'plus and minus' method. The sequence identifies many of the features responsible for the production of the proteins of the nine known genes of the organism, including initiation and termination sites for the proteins and RNAs. Two pairs of genes are coded by the same region of DNA using different reading frames.

Base Sequence