BK virus DNA: complete nucleotide sequence of a human tumor virus

Abstract

The complete DNA sequence of the human papovavirus BK is presented. From the 4963 base-pair sequence of BK virus (MM strain), the amino acid sequence of at least five proteins can be deduced: a T antigen and a t antigen, which share amino terminal peptides; proteins VP2 and VP3, which share 232 amino acids; and protein VP1, whose coding sequence overlaps those for VP2 and VP3 by 113 nucleotides but is read in a different frame. The gene loci and the arrangement of genes are strikingly similar in BK virus and simian virus 40 (SV40). The sequence of the deduced proteins in BK virus shares 73 percent amino acid homology with those in SV40, whereas the DNA sequence of the two viruses shares 70 percent homology, suggesting close evolutionary relationship. However, the repeated DNA sequences in the noncoding regions of these viruses are different.