We have developed a database of lymphoid polypeptides detected by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to aid in studies of leukemogenesis and of mutation affecting protein structure. In prior studies, we observed a 19-kDa phosphopolypeptide which was induced with proliferation in mature T cells and constitutively expressed in immature thymocytes. In this report we describe the identififcation of this polypeptide as the phosphorylated form of dUTPase (EC 3.6.1.23), following cDNA cloning of the gene, based on a partial amino acid sequence of the phosphopolypeptide. Studies of the expression and phosphorylation of dUTPase in human T cells indicate that accumulation and phosphorylation of dUTPase in mature T cells occur in a cell cycle-dependent manner. Interestingly, noncycling immature thymocytes express constitutively high levels of phosphorylated and unphosphorylated dUTPase. These results suggest an important role for dUTPase in immature thymocytes that is independent of proliferation.

Amplification of the M2 gene encoding the small subunit of ribonucleotide reductase (EC 1.17.4.1) was analyzed in a collection of vaccinia virus (VV) isolates selected for resistance to 5 mM hydroxyurea (HU). Most of the mutants harbored tandem direct repeat arrays of the M2 gene, but several had duplicated M2 as an inverted repeat by genomic rearrangements involving the chromosomal termini. Novel joints formed by direct repeats were mapped, amplified in vitro, and sequenced. The junctions were simple fusions between DNA downstream and upstream of the M2 gene. Lack of sequence homology at the breakpoints indicated that the initial genomic rearrangements leading to gene amplification were due to nonhomologous recombination events.

The vaccinia virus gene that encodes the small subunit of ribonucleotide reductase was localized to the Hindlll F fragment by using degenerate oligonucleotide probes. DNA sequencing revealed a leftward-reading open reading frame that predicted a protein of 37 kilodaltons whose amino acid sequence was much more homologous to the mouse and clam M2 sequences (-80%) than to the corresponding herpesvirus (-27%) or procaryotic (-19%) gene products. Vaccinia virus mutants selected for the ability to grow in high concentrations of a specific inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase, hydroxyurea, amplified the M2 gene and harbored tandem arrays (2 to 15 copies) of the gene within the HindIII F region. RNA isolated at early times after infection with wild-type virus and probed with an internal fragment of the M2 gene indicated one major (1.2 kilobases) and two minor (4.0 and 2.1 kilobases) transcripts. Si nuclease analysis and primer extension experiments identified an RNA start site 12 nucleotides upstream of the putative initiation ATG codon.

The retroviral protease-encoding region, PR, situated between the gag and pol genes, underwent gene duplication in the lineage now represented by simian retrovirus type 1; the sequence of the duplicated segment has diverged considerably from the present PR sequence [Power, M.

A vaccinia virus (VV) gene required for DNA replication has been mapped to the left side of the 16-kilobase (kb) W HindIII D DNA fragment by marker rescue of a DNA-temperature-sensitive mutant, tsU7, using cloned fragments of the viral genome. The region of W DNA containing the tsl7 locus (3.6 kb) was sequenced. This nucleotide sequence contains one complete open reading frame (ORF) and two incomplete ORFs reading from left to right. Analysis of this region at early times revealed that transcription from the incomplete upstream ORF terminates coincidentally with the complete ORF encoding the ts17 gene product, which is directly downstream. The predicted proteins encoded by this region correlate well with polypeptides mapped by in vitro translation of hybrid-selected early mRNA. The nucleotide sequences of a 1.3-kb Bglll fragment derived from ts17 and from two ts17 revertants were also determined, and the nature of the tsU7 mutation was identified. S1 nuclease protection studies were carried out to determine the 5' and 3' ends of the transcripts and to examine the kinetics of expression of the ts17 gene during viral infection. The ts17 transcript is present at both early and late times postinfection, indicating that this gene is constitutively expressed. Surprisingly, the transcriptional start throughout infection occurs at the proposed late regulatory element TAA, which immediately precedes the putative initiation codon ATG. Although the biological activity of the tsl7-encoded polypeptide was not identified, it was noted that in tsl7-infected cells, expression of a nonlinked VV immediate-early gene (thymidine kinase) was deregulated at the nonpermissive temperature. This result may indicate that the ts17 gene product is functionally required at an early step of the W replicative cycle.