Apparently: "poly(A) tails at the 3' end of RNA are not an unusual feature of viruses. Eukaryotic mRNA almost always contains poly(A) tails, which are added pos

Apparently: "poly(A) tails at the 3' end of RNA are not an unusual feature of viruses. Eukaryotic mRNA almost always contains poly(A) tails, which are added post-transcriptionally in a process known as polyadenylation. It should not therefore be surprising that positive-strand RNA viruses would have poly(A) tails as well. In eukaryotic mRNA, the central sequence motif for identifying a polyadenylation region is AAUAAA, identified way back in the 1970s, with more recent research confirming its ubiquity. Proudfoot 2011 is a nice review article on poly(A) signals in eukaryotic mRNA." Edit: A more recent (2017) study than Proudfoot 2011 offers the perspective that the process may be more tissue specific. From Tian B., Manley J.L. Alternative polyadenylation of mRNA precursors. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2016; 18:18–30: Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is an RNA-processing mechanism that generates distinct 3′ termini on mRNAs and other RNA polymerase II transcripts. It is widespread across all eukaryotic species and is recognized as a major mechanism of gene regulation. APA exhibits tissue specificity and is important for cell proliferation and differentiation. In this Review, we discuss the roles of APA in diverse cellular processes, including mRNA metabolism, protein diversification and protein localization, and more generally in gene regulation. We also discuss the molecular mechanisms underlying APA, such as variation in the concentration of core processing factors and RNA-binding proteins, as well as transcription-based regulation.