To examine the validity of the strategy to express a foreign gene as a fusion protein with the coat protein (CP) of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), we have constructed ENK RNA by using an in vitro transcription system of TMV RNA. ENK RNA differs from TMV RNA only in that ENK RNA carries an additional sequence coding for Leu-enkephalin (Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Leu) (Enk) with a preceding in-frame methionine just before the termination codon of CP gene. In protoplasts inoculated with ENK RNA, CP+Enk fusion protein accumulated as the major protein.
