The Three Faces of Riboviral Spontaneous Mutation: Spectrum, Mode of Genome Replication, and Mutation Rate
Figure 3
Spectrum of spontaneous Qß mutations.
The main RNA sequence represents the codons of the positive strand of the mutational reporter, which includes the RT-coding gene from positions 1743–2333 of the Qß genome (i.e., the RT-coding gene minus the portion that codes the Coat protein). The RT sequence begins with the UGA stop codon for the Coat protein, which at a frequency of 3% is translated as tryptophan to yield the whole RT protein. Mutations are indicated above the wild-type sequence. Primary base substitutions are in capital letters while secondary ones are in lower case. The two insertions are indicated by inverted triangles.