Strand transfer to the 5′ part of a tRNA as a mechanism for retrovirus patch-repair recombination in vivo

2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (7) ◽  
pp. 1965-1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
María L. Carrasco ◽  
Mogens Duch ◽  
Finn Skou Pedersen

By screening for marker-cassette deletion mutants of a murine leukaemia virus-based replication-competent vector, two occurrences of tRNA sequence patch insertions were identified. In one of the cases, 28 nucleotides from the 5′ end of tRNALys4 were inserted in the plus-strand orientation, which points to a novel strand-transfer mechanism to tRNAs during reverse transcriptase-mediated retroviral recombination.

2003 ◽  
Vol 278 (34) ◽  
pp. 31536-31546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo H. Roda ◽  
Mini Balakrishnan ◽  
Mark N. Hanson ◽  
Birgitta M. Wöhrl ◽  
Stuart F. J. Le Grice ◽  
...  

We describe the generation and characterization of a series of deletion mutants of the avian acute leukaemia virus MC29 which allow the study of the function of the myc in transformation of quail embryo fibroblasts in vitro and tumour induction in vivo . These mutants, which are deleted in the 3' portion of the myc gene, fail to transform macrophages in vitro or induce tumours in vivo but are still able to transform morphologically fibroblasts. From one of these mutants a ‘recovered’ MC29 virus was generated which, like wild type MC29, transformed fibroblasts and macrophages in vitro . When tested in vivo this virus induced lymphomas of T and B cells rather that the endotheliomas induced by wild type MC29. This system allows us to investigate another question which is the mechanism by which the virus (or oncogene it contains) preferentially transforms one cell type.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayumi Imahashi ◽  
Hirotaka Ode ◽  
Ayumi Kobayashi ◽  
Michiko Nemoto ◽  
Masakazu Matsuda ◽  
...  

AbstractIn HIV-1-infected patients, antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a key factor that may impact commensal microbiota and cause the emergence of side effects. However, it is not fully understood how long-term ART regimens have diverse impacts on the microbial compositions over time. Here, we performed 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing of the fecal and salivary microbiomes in patients under different long-term ART. We found that ART, especially conventional nucleotide/nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)-based ART, has remarkable impacts on fecal microbial diversity: decreased α-diversity and increased ß-diversity over time. In contrast, dynamic diversity changes in the salivary microbiome were not observed. Comparative analysis of bacterial genus compositions showed a propensity for Prevotella-enriched and Bacteroides-poor gut microbiotas in patients with ART over time. In addition, we observed a gradual reduction in Bacteroides but drastic increases in Succinivibrio and/or Megasphaera under conventional ART. These results suggest that ART, especially NRTI-based ART, has more suppressive impacts on microbiota composition and diversity in the gut than in the mouth, which potentially causes intestinal dysbiosis in patients. Therefore, NRTI-sparing ART, especially integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI)- and/or non-nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-containing regimens, might alleviate the burden of intestinal dysbiosis in HIV-1-infected patients under long-term ART.


1991 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.S. Chin ◽  
P. Macioce ◽  
R.K. Liem

The expression and assembly characteristics of carboxyl- and amino-terminal deletion mutants of rat neurofilament low Mr (NF-L) and neurofilament middle Mr (NF-M) proteins were examined by transient transfection of cultured fibroblasts. Deletion of the carboxyl-terminal tail domain of either protein indicated that this region was not absolutely essential for co-assembly into the endogenous vimentin cytoskeleton. However, deletion into the alpha-helical rod domain resulted in an inability of the mutant proteins to co-assemble with vimentin into filamentous structures. Instead, the mutant proteins appeared to be assembled into unusual tubular-vesicular structures. Additionally, these latter deletions appeared to act as dominant negative mutants which induced the collapse of the endogenous vimentin cytoskeleton as well as the constitutively expressed NF-H and NF-M cytoskeletons in stably transfected cell lines. Thus, an intact alpha-helical rod domain was essential for normal IF co-assembly whereas carboxyl-terminal deletions into this region resulted in dramatic alterations of the existing type III and IV intermediate filament cytoskeletons in vivo. Deletions from the amino-terminal end into the alpha-helical rod region gave different results. With these deletions, the transfected protein was not co-assembled into filaments and the endogenous vimentin IF network was not disrupted, indicating that these deletion mutants are recessive. The dominant negative mutants may provide a novel approach to studying intermediate filament function within living cells.


1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 1295-1309
Author(s):  
R W Scott ◽  
S M Tilghman

The constitutive transcription of a mouse alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) minigene was examined during the transient expression of AFP-simian virus 40-pBR322 recombinant DNAs introduced into HeLa cells by Ca3(PO4)2 precipitation. We tested three constructs, each of which contains the AFP minigene and pBR322 DNAs inserted in the late region of simian virus 40 and found that the relative efficiency of AFP gene expression was dependent on the arrangement of the three DNA elements in the vector. The transcripts begin at the authentic AFP cap site and are properly spliced and polyadenylated. To define a sequence domain in the 5' flanking region of the AFP gene required for constitutive expression, sequential 5' deletion mutants of the AFP minigene were constructed and introduced into HeLa cells. All AFP deletion mutants which retained at least the TATA motif located 30 base pairs upstream from the cap site were capable of directing accurate and efficient AFP transcription. However, when the TATA sequence was deleted, no accurately initiated AFP transcripts were detected. These results are identical to those obtained from in vitro transcription of truncated AFP 5' deletion mutant templates assayed in HeLa cell extracts. The rate of AFP transcription in vivo was unaffected by deletion of DNA upstream of the AFP TATA box but was greatly affected by the distance between the simian virus 40 control region and the 5' end of the gene. The absence of any promoter activity upstream of the TATA box in this assay system is in contrast to what has been reported for several other eucaryotic structural genes in a variety of in vivo systems. A sequence comparison between the 5' flanking region of the AFP gene and these genes suggested that the AFP gene lacks those structural elements found to be important for constitutive transcription in vivo. Either the AFP gene lacks upstream promoter function in the 5' flanking DNA contained within the minigene, or the use of a viral vector in a heterologous system precludes its identification.


2006 ◽  
Vol 74 (7) ◽  
pp. 4048-4057 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Kahl-McDonagh ◽  
T. A. Ficht

ABSTRACT Research for novel Brucella vaccines has focused upon the development of live vaccine strains, which have proven more efficacious than killed or subunit vaccines. In an effort to develop improved vaccines, signature-tagged mutant banks were screened to identify mutants attenuated for survival. Mutants selected from these screens exhibited various degrees of attenuation characterized by the rate of clearance, ranging from a failure to grow in macrophages after 24 h of infection to a failure to persist in the mouse model beyond 8 weeks. Ideal vaccine candidates should be safe to the host, while evoking protective immunity. In the present work, we constructed unmarked deletion mutants of three gene candidates, manBA, virB2, and asp24, in both Brucella abortus and Brucella melitensis. The Δasp24 mutants, which persist for extended periods in vivo, are superior to current vaccine strains and to other deletion strains tested in the mouse model against homologous challenge infection after 12, 16, and 20 weeks postvaccination. The Δasp24 mutants also display superior protection compared to ΔmanBA and ΔvirB2 mutants against heterologous challenge in mice. From this study, a direct association between protection against infection and cytokine response was not apparent between all vaccine groups and, therefore, correlates of protective immunity will need to be considered further. A distinct correlation between persistence of the vaccine strain and protection against infection was corroborated.


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