Yang, G., S. Tolkowsky Laboratory, Dept. of Virology Agrl. Res. Org., Bet Dagan, Israel
Mawassi, M., S. Tolkowsky Laboratory, Dept. of Virology Agrl. Res. Org., Bet Dagan, Israel
Gofman, R., S. Tolkowsky Laboratory, Dept. of Virology Agrl. Res. Org., Bet Dagan, Israel
Gafny, R., S. Tolkowsky Laboratory, Dept. of Virology Agrl. Res. Org., Bet Dagan, Israel
Bar-Joseph, M., S. Tolkowsky Laboratory, Dept. of Virology Agrl. Res. Org., Bet Dagan, Israel

The fusion sites between the termini of naturally occurring defective RNAs (D-RNAs) from three citrus tristeza virus (CTV) isolates were sequenced. Seven of eight clones showed a common 3' terminus of 940 nucleotides (nt) fused to 5' termini with different sizes. An extra cytosine nucleotide was found at the junction site of the majority of the common 3' D-RNAs. Molecular analysis of the plus and minus strands of the 0.9-kbp double-stranded RNA, corresponding to the CTV open reading frame 11 subgenomic RNA (sgRNA), showed that they were identical in length and sequence to the common 3' sequence of the D-RNAs. These results imply that viral sgRNA messengers also function as building components for genomic rearrangement and exchange of complete viral genes.