The overall competence of CfMV signals to direct À1 PRF was high, when compared to related plant viruses, such as Potato leaf roll virus and BYDV. À1 PRF values of $1% have been reported for these viruses when measured with reporter-based assays (6, 38) . We can hypothesize that one reason for the high efficiency is the slippery tRNA Asn encoding the AAC triplet of the CfMV heptamer. Equal U UUA AAC slippery heptamer has been measured to induce 20-40% of À1 PRF in a diversity of animal viruses [(39); reviewed in (3)]. The low fitness of CfMV À1 PRF signals in bacteria is in agreement with the poor functioning of the eukaryotic slippery heptamers of the order X XXA AAC in prokaryotes (40) (41) (42) . IBV RNA, having an identical shifty heptamer, has been shown to direct À1 PRF at similar 2-3% level in bacteria (41) . A recent study reported that XXXAAAC heptamers dictate À1 PRF to occur via the slippage of two adjacent tRNAs placed over the heptamer, irrespective of whether the host is an eukaryote or a prokaryote (42) . Therefore, the inability of prokaryotic translation systems to direct efficient À1 PRF from this heptamer is not an inherited property of prokaryotic tRNA Asn , but results from differences in the ribosomes (42) .