Volume 12 Number 20 1984 Nucleic Acids Research Tle complete nucleotfde sequene of a common cold vwirus: human rhinovirus 14 Glyn Stanway, Pamela J.Hughes, Roger C.Mountford, Philip D.Minor+ and Jeffrey W.Almond Department of Microbiology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LEI 7RH, and +National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Holly Hill, London NW3 6RB, UK Received 6 August 1984; Revised and Accepted 24 September 1984 ABSTRACT The complete nucleotide sequence of the single-stranded RNA genome of human rhinovirus 14, one of the causative agents of the common cold, has been determined from cDNA cloned in E.coli. The genome is typical of the picornaviridae family, comprising a 5' non-coding region of 624 nucleotides, a long open reading frame of 6537 nucleotides (90.8 * of the genome) and a 3' non-coding region of 47 nucleotides. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence and the predicted amino acid sequence with those of the polioviruises reveals a surprising degree of homology which may allow recognition of regions of antigenic importance and prediction of the virus polyprotein cleavage sites. The results presented here imply a closer genetic relationship between the rhinovirus and enterovirus genera than previ-ously suspected. INTRODUCTION Human rhinoviruses are the major causative agents of the upper respiratory tract infections collectively known as the common cold, one of the most common virus infections of man (1). The high incidence of the disease can be explained, at least partially, by the fact that several of the 115 immunologically distinct known rhinovirus serotypes can co-circulate within a community (2,3). Since this serotype diversity effectively precludes a vaccination program based on conventional methods, the elucidation of its molecular basis is one of the most important problems in rhinovirus research. Rhinoviruses, including human rhinoviruses, form one genus of the family picornaviridae (4). They share the common features of this family, namely a 25nm capsid of icosohedral symmetry, made up of 60 copies of each of 4 virus coded proteins (VP1-4) and enclosing a single-stranded RNA genome of approximately 7500 nucleotides (5-7). The RNA is of positive polarity, is poly-adenylated at its 3' terminus and has a small protein, VPg, covalently attached to the 5' terminus (8,9). The genomes of representatives of each of the other three genera of picornaviridae, enterovirus (10-14), aphthovirus C0 I RL Press Umited, Oxford, England. 7859