Gene protein products of SA11 simian rotavirus genome.

When MA104 cells were infected with SA11 rotavirus, 12 protein classes, absent in mock-infected cells, could be distinguished by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. At least two of these proteins were glycosylated, and their synthesis could be blocked with tunicamycin. The oligosaccharides of both glycoproteins were cleaved by endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H, suggesting that they were residues of the "high-mannose" type. Of the 12 viral polypeptides observed in infected cells, 1 was probably the apoprotein of one of these glycoproteins; 5, including 1 glycoprotein, were structural components of the virions, whereas the other 6, including a second and possibly third glycoprotein, were nonstructural viral proteins. When the 11 double-stranded RNA genome segments of SA11 were translated, after denaturation, in an RNA-dependent cell-free translation system, at least 11 different polypeptides were synthesized. Ten of these polypeptides had electrophoretic migration patterns equal to those of viral proteins observed in tunicamycin-treated infected cells. Nine of the 11 double-stranded RNA genome segments were resolved by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and were translated individually. Two were not resolved from each other and therefore were translated together. Correlation of each synthesized polypeptide with an individual RNA segment allowed us to make a probable gene-coding assignment for the different SA11 genome segments.