In a human genome, we found dispersed repetitive sequences homologous to part of a human endogenous retrovirus termed HERV-K which resembled mouse mammary tumor virus. For elucidation of their structure and organization, we cloned some of these sequences from a human gene library. The sequence common to the cloned DNA was ca. 630 base-pairs (bp) in length with an A-rich tail at the 3' end and was found to be a SINE (short interspersed repeated sequence) type nonviral retroposon. In this retroposon, the 5' end had multiple copies of a 40 bp direct repeat very rich in GC content and about the next 510 nucleotides were homologous to the 3' long terminal repeat and its upstream flanking region of the HERV-K genome. This retroposon was thus given the name, SINE-R element since most of it derived from a retrovirus. SINE-R elements were present at 4,000 to 5,000 copies per haploid human genome. The nucleotide sequence was ca. 90% homologous among the cloned elements.

Abundant adenylate cyclase activity was found in the phase I cultures not only of Bordetella pertussis but also of B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica. The enzyme activity in the culture fluid increased rapidly and reached a peak during the logarithmic growth phase. B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica especially produced a high activity of the enzyme in the culture fluid during the logarithmic phase, but little or no activity was detected in the cells throughout the growth period. In the culture of B. pertussis, the intracellular activity was higher than that in the culture fluid. Phase III cultures of these species lacked both the extracellular and intracellular enzyme activities throughout their growth.In the culture of B. parapertussis, accumulation of cyclic AMP was parallel to that of adenylate cyclase activity through the growth periods, but in B. pertussis there was no parallelism from the stationary through the declining phases. The difference in production patterns of the enzyme activity among the species is discussed.

The genomic RNA of the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) Beijing-1 strain was reversely transcribed and the synthesized cDNA was molecularly cloned. Six continuous cDNA clones that cover the entire virus genome were established and sequenced to determine the complete nucleotide sequence of the JEV RNA. The precise genomic size was estimated as 10,965 bases long. With flanking 95 bases at the 5' and 583 bases at the 3' non-coding regions, one long open reading frame (ORF) was revealed encoding a virus polyprotein with 3,429 amino acid residues. Because of sequence homologies observed between JEV and other flaviviruses, the genome organization of JEV appears to be identical with other flaviviruses. Genetic variation detected among flavivirus genomes is consistent with the established serological relatedness between JEV and other members of flaviviruses. The secondary structure of the JEV genome is deduced and discussed concerning its involvement in genome replication.

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