A membranous fraction that could synthesize viral RNA in vitro in the presence of magnesium salt, ribonucleotides, and an ATP-regenerating system was isolated from feline calicivirus (FCV)-infected cells. The enzymatically active component of this fraction was designated FCV replication complexes (RCs), by analogy to other positive-strand RNA viruses. The newly synthesized RNA was characterized by Northern blot analysis, which demonstrated the production of both full-length (8.0-kb) and subgenomic-length (2.5-kb) RNA molecules similar to those synthesized in FCV-infected cells. The identity of the viral proteins associated with the fraction was investigated. The 60-kDa VP1 major capsid protein was the most abundant viral protein detected. VP2, a minor structural protein encoded by open reading frame 3 (ORF3), was also present. Nonstructural proteins associated with the fraction included the precursor polypeptides Pro-Pol (76 kDa) and p30-VPg (43 kDa), as well as the mature nonstructural proteins p32 (derived from the N-terminal region of the ORF1 polyprotein), p30 (the putative "3A-like" protein), and p39 (the putative nucleoside triphosphatase). The isolation of enzymatically active RCs containing both viral and cellular proteins should facilitate efforts to dissect the contributions of the virus and the host to FCV RNA replication.Feline calicivirus (FCV), a member of the genus Vesivirus in the family Caliciviridae, is a major agent of respiratory disease in cats. The FCV genome is an approximately 7.7-kb singlestrand positive-sense RNA molecule that is covalently linked to a protein designated VPg (for virus protein, genome) at the 5Ј end and polyadenylated at the 3Ј end (8, 18). The genome is organized into three open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 encodes an approximately 200-kDa polyprotein that is processed by the virus-encoded 3C-like cysteine proteinase into the mature nonstructural proteins p5.6, p32, p39 (nucleoside triphosphatase [NTPase]), p30, VPg, and Pro-Pol (36a, 38). ORF2 encodes a 73-kDa capsid precursor (preVP1) that is cleaved in trans by the same virus-encoded proteinase to yield the 14-kDa capsid leader (LC) and the approximately 60-kDa mature major capsid protein VP1 (9, 31, 37). ORF3 encodes a 12-kDa basic protein of unknown function, designated VP2, that is associated with mature virions (17, 36).RNA purified from virus particles and capped RNA transcripts derived from a full-length cDNA clone are infectious when transfected into feline kidney cells (21, 35). Two major polyadenylated positive-sense RNA molecules have been detected in FCV-infected cells (7,18,30). The 7.7-to 8-kb genomic RNA serves as a message for translation of the viral nonstructural proteins, and the ϳ2.6-kb subgenomic RNA serves as a bicistronic template for translation of structural proteins VP1 and VP2 (18,31). Several additional species of positive-and negative-sense RNA have been detected in FCVinfected cells, but their significance is not known (7,30).All of the positive-strand RNA viruses examined thus far form r...