Virus Research, 19 (1991) 59-66 8 1991 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. 0168-1702/91/$03.50 ADONIS 01681702910007131(: VIRUS 00646 Nucleotide sequence and coding capacity of the large (L) genomic RNA segment of Seoul 80-39 virus, a member of the hantavirus genus * Dragana Antic, Byung-Uk Lim and C. Yong Kang Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine, Ottawa, O ntario, Canada (Acsepted 13 December 1990) 59 The nucleotide sequence of the large (L) genomic RNA segment of Seoul 80-39 virus was determined from overlapping cDNA clones. The virion L RNA segment is 6530 nucleotides long. The 3’ and 5’ terminal sequences are inversely complemen- tary for 15 bases. The viral complementary-sense RNA contains a single open reading frame from an AUG codon at nucleotide position 37-39 to a UAA stop codon at nucleotide position 64906492. This ORF could encode a polypeptide of 2151 amino acids (246,662 kDa) which likely corresponds to the L protein detected in purified viral particles (Elliott et al., 1984) and is assumed to be an RNA-depen- dent RNA polymerase molecule (Schmaljohn and Dalrymple, 1983). Comparison of the L protein of the Seoul 80-39 virus with the polymerase proteins encoded by other negative-stranded RNA viruses revealed 44% similarity only with the part of the Bunyamwera virus L protein (Elliott, weak homology with the PBl protein of influenza virus. 1989) and a very Seoul 80-39 virus is a member of the zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSR ~a~iauj~ genus of the Bunyaviridae family. It causes a mild form of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. The Correspondence to: C. Yong Kang, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KlH 8M5. * The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper will appear in the EMBL, Genbank under the accession No. X56492.