Conserved primary structures in core capsid proteins and reassembly of core particles and outer capsids between rice gall dwarf and rice dwarf phytoreoviruses.

The nucleotide sequence of the S3 genome segment of rice gall dwarf virus, a phytoreovirus, consisted of 3224 bp and sequence analysis showed that the segment potentially encoded a 116K major core capsid protein of the virus. This 116K protein and the 114K major core capsid protein of rice dwarf virus are similar in size and were found to have amino acid sequence homology as high as that between the major outer capsid proteins of the two viruses. Core particles and outer capsids of these viruses were interchangeable, suggesting conformational similarity in the three-dimensional architecture of their core and outer capsid proteins.