The RNA polymerase gene of murine coronavirus MHV-JHM encodes a polyprotein of greater than 750 kDa. This polyprotein is proposed to be processed by two papain-like cysteine proteinases, PCP-1 and PCP-2, and a poliovirus 3C-like proteinase domain, 3C-pro, to generate protein products. The amino-terminal product of the MHV polymerase polyprotein, p28, is generated by cleavage of the polyprotein by PCP-1. To identify the viral products downstream of p28, we generated a fusion-protein specific antiserum directed against the region adjacent to p28 and used the antiserum to detect virus-specific proteins from MHV-JHM infected cells. When this antiserum was used to immunoprecipitate radiolabeled proteins from MHV-JHM infected cell lysates, virus-specific proteins of 72 and 65 kDa were detected. Furthermore, pulse and chase experiments demonstrated that p72 is likely a precursor to the mature protein product, p65. To investigate which viral proteinase may be responsible for generating p72 and p65, we expressed the 5'-region of the MHV-JHM RNA polymerase gene including the two papain-like cysteine proteinase domains in an in vitro transcription/translation system and analyzed the translation products for proteolytic processing. We also cloned and expressed the 72 kDa region immediately downstream from p28, and tested the ability of in vitro translated PCP-1 and PCP-2 to cleave p72 to p65 in trans. Our results indicate that neither viral proteinase domain PCP-1 nor PCP-2 is capable of cleavage of p72 to produce p65 in vitro. The role of MHV proteinases in the processing of p72 and p65 is discussed.