scholarly journals NeoRdRp: A comprehensive dataset for identifying RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of various RNA viruses from metatranscriptomic data

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoichi Sakaguchi ◽  
Syun-ichi Urayama ◽  
Yoshihiro Takaki ◽  
Hong Wu ◽  
Youichi Suzuki ◽  
...  

RNA viruses are distributed in various environments, and most RNA viruses have been recently identified by metatranscriptome sequencing. However, due to the high nucleotide diversity of RNA viruses, it is still challenging to identify their sequences. Therefore, this study generated a dataset of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domains essential for all RNA viruses belonging to Orthornavirae. Also, the collected genes with RdRp domains from various RNA viruses were clustered by amino acid sequence similarity. For each cluster, a multiple sequence alignment was generated, and a hidden Markov model (HMM) profile was created if the number of sequences was greater than five. Using the 1,467 HMM profiles, we detected RdRp domains in the RefSeq RNA virus sequences, combined the hit sequences with the RdRp domains, and reconstructed the HMM profiles. As a result, 2,234 HMM profiles were generated from 12,316 RdRp domain sequences, and the dataset was named NeoRdRp. Additionally, using the UniProt dataset, we confirmed that almost all NeoRdRp HMM profiles could specifically detect RdRps in Orthornavirae. Furthermore, we compared the NeoRdRp dataset with two previously reported RNA virus detection methods to detect RNA virus sequences from metatranscriptome sequencing data. Our methods can identify most of the RNA viruses in the datasets; however, some RNA viruses were not detected, similar to the other two methods. The NeoRdRp can be improved by repeatedly adding new RdRp sequences and can be expected to be widely applied as a system for detecting various RNA viruses from metatranscriptome data.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryosuke Fujita ◽  
Maki N. Inoue ◽  
Takumi Takamatsu ◽  
Hiroshi Arai ◽  
Mayu Nishino ◽  
...  

Late male-killing, a male-specific death after hatching, is a unique phenotype found in Homona magnanima, oriental tea tortrix. The male-killing agent was suspected to be an RNA virus, but details were unknown. We herein successfully isolated and identified the putative male-killing virus as Osugoroshi viruses (OGVs). The three RNA-dependent RNA polymerase genes detected were phylogenetically related to Partitiviridae, a group of segmented double-stranded RNA viruses. Purified dsRNA from a late male-killing strain of H. magnanima revealed 24 segments, in addition to the RdRps, with consensus terminal sequences. These segments included the previously found male-killing agents MK1068 (herein OGV-related RNA16) and MK1241 (OGV-related RNA7) RNAs. Ultramicroscopic observation of purified virions, which induced late male-killing in the progeny of injected moths, showed sizes typical of Partitiviridae. Mathematical modeling showed the importance of late male-killing in facilitating horizontal transmission of OGVs in an H. magnanima population. This study is the first report on the isolation of partiti-like virus from insects, and one thought to be associated with late male-killing, although the viral genomic contents and combinations in each virus are still unknown.


2015 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 2446-2454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enzo Z. Poirier ◽  
Bryan C. Mounce ◽  
Kathryn Rozen-Gagnon ◽  
Peter Jan Hooikaas ◽  
Kenneth A. Stapleford ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTLow-fidelity RNA-dependent RNA polymerases for many RNA virus mutators have been shown to confer attenuated phenotypes, presumably due to increased mutation rates. Additionally, for many RNA viruses, replication to high titers results in the production of defective interfering particles (DIs) that also attenuate infection. We hypothesized that fidelity, recombination, and DI production are tightly linked. We show that a Sindbis virus mutator replicating at a high multiplicity of infection manifests an earlier and greater accumulation of DIs than its wild-type counterpart. The isolated DIs interfere with the replication of full-length virus in a dose-dependent manner. Importantly, the ability of the mutator virus to overproduce DIs could be linked to an increased recombination frequency. These data confirm that RNA-dependent RNA polymerase fidelity and recombination are inversely correlated for this mutator. Our findings suggest that defective interference resulting from higher recombination rates may be more detrimental to RNA virus mutators than the increase in mutational burden.IMPORTANCEReplication, adaptation, and evolution of RNA viruses rely in large part on their low-fidelity RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Viruses artificially modified in their polymerases to decrease fidelity (mutator viruses) are attenuatedin vivo, demonstrating the important role of fidelity in viral fitness. However, attenuation was attributed solely to the modification of the viral mutation rate and the accumulation of detrimental point mutations. In this work, we described an additional phenotype of mutator viruses: an increased recombination rate leading to defective interfering particle (DI) overproduction. Because DIs are known for their inhibitory effect on viral replication, our work suggests that fidelity variants may be attenuatedin vivovia several mechanisms. This has important implications in the development of fidelity variants as live attenuated vaccine strains.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongdong Li ◽  
Wenjing Zhang ◽  
Yuwen Luo ◽  
Jianxin Wang

Aims: Accurately detect isoforms from third generation sequencing data. Background: Transcriptome annotation is the basis for the analysis of gene expression and regulation. The transcriptome annotation of many organisms such as humans is far from incomplete, due partly to the challenge in the identification of isoforms that are produced from the same gene through alternative splicing. Third generation sequencing (TGS) reads provide unprecedented opportunity for detecting isoforms due to their long length that exceeds the length of most isoforms. One limitation of current TGS reads-based isoform detection methods is that they are exclusively based on sequence reads, without incorporating the sequence information of known isoforms. Objective: Develop an efficient method for isoform detection. Method: Based on annotated isoforms, we propose a splice isoform detection method called IsoDetect. First, the sequence at exon-exon junction is extracted from annotated isoforms as the “short feature sequence”, which is used to distinguish different splice isoforms. Second, we aligned these feature sequences to long reads and divided long reads into groups that contain the same set of feature sequences, thereby avoiding the pair-wise comparison among the large number of long reads. Third, clustering and consensus generation are carried out based on sequence similarity. For the long reads that do not contain any short feature sequence, clustering analysis based on sequence similarity is performed to identify isoforms. Result: Tested on two datasets from Calypte Anna and Zebra Finch, IsoDetect showed higher speed and compelling accuracy compared with four existing methods. Conclusion: IsoDetect is a promising method for isoform detection. Other: This paper was accepted by the CBC2019 conference.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 313
Author(s):  
Heli A. M. Mönttinen ◽  
Janne J. Ravantti ◽  
Minna M. Poranen

RNA viruses are the fastest evolving known biological entities. Consequently, the sequence similarity between homologous viral proteins disappears quickly, limiting the usability of traditional sequence-based phylogenetic methods in the reconstruction of relationships and evolutionary history among RNA viruses. Protein structures, however, typically evolve more slowly than sequences, and structural similarity can still be evident, when no sequence similarity can be detected. Here, we used an automated structural comparison method, homologous structure finder, for comprehensive comparisons of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRps). We identified a common structural core of 231 residues for all the structurally characterized viral RdRps, covering segmented and non-segmented negative-sense, positive-sense, and double-stranded RNA viruses infecting both prokaryotic and eukaryotic hosts. The grouping and branching of the viral RdRps in the structure-based phylogenetic tree follow their functional differentiation. The RdRps using protein primer, RNA primer, or self-priming mechanisms have evolved independently of each other, and the RdRps cluster into two large branches based on the used transcription mechanism. The structure-based distance tree presented here follows the recently established RdRp-based RNA virus classification at genus, subfamily, family, order, class and subphylum ranks. However, the topology of our phylogenetic tree suggests an alternative phylum level organization.


mBio ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie D. Collins ◽  
Andrew S. Beck ◽  
Steven G. Widen ◽  
Thomas G. Wood ◽  
Stephen Higgs ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT One paradigm to explain the complexity of viral RNA populations is that the low fidelity of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) drives high mutation rates and consequently genetic diversity. Like most RNA viruses, wild-type yellow fever virus (YFV) replication is error-prone due to the lack of proofreading by the virus-encoded RdRp. However, there is evidence that replication of the live attenuated YF vaccine virus 17D, derived from wild-type strain Asibi, is less error-prone than wild-type RNA viruses. Recent studies comparing the genetic diversity of wild-type Asibi and 17D vaccine virus found that wild-type Asibi has the typical heterogeneous population of an RNA virus, while there is limited intra- and interpopulation variability of 17D vaccine virus. Utilizing chimeric and mutant infectious clone-derived viruses, we show that high and low genetic diversity profiles of wild-type Asibi virus and vaccine virus 17D, respectively, are multigenic. Introduction of either structural (pre-membrane and envelope) genes or NS2B or NS4B substitutions into the Asibi and 17D backbone resulted in altered variant population, nucleotide diversity, and mutation frequency compared to the parental viruses. Additionally, changes in genetic diversity of the chimeric and mutant viruses correlated with the phenotype of multiplication kinetics in human alveolar A549 cells. Overall, the paradigm that only the error-prone RdRp controls genetic diversity needs to be expanded to address the role of other genes in genetic diversity, and we hypothesize that it is the replication complex as a whole and not the RdRp alone that controls genetic diversity. IMPORTANCE With the advent of advanced sequencing technology, studies of RNA viruses have shown that genetic diversity can contribute to both attenuation and virulence and the paradigm is that this is controlled by the error-prone RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Since wild-type yellow fever virus (YFV) strain Asibi has genetic diversity typical of a wild-type RNA virus, while 17D virus vaccine has limited diversity, it provides a unique opportunity to investigate RNA population theory in the context of a well-characterized live attenuated vaccine. Utilizing infectious clone-derived viruses, we show that genetic diversity of RNA viruses is complex and that multiple genes, including structural genes and NS2B and NS4B genes also contribute to genetic diversity. We suggest that the replication complex as a whole, rather than only RdRp, drives genetic diversity, at least for YFV.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1738
Author(s):  
Alesia A. Levanova ◽  
Eeva J. Vainio ◽  
Jarkko Hantula ◽  
Minna M. Poranen

Heterobasidion RNA virus 6 (HetRV6) is a double-stranded (ds)RNA mycovirus and a member of the recently established genus Orthocurvulavirus within the family Orthocurvulaviridae. The purpose of the study was to determine the biochemical requirements for RNA synthesis catalyzed by HetRV6 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). HetRV6 RdRp was expressed in Escherichia coli and isolated to near homogeneity using liquid chromatography. The enzyme activities were studied in vitro using radiolabeled UTP. The HetRV6 RdRp was able to initiate RNA synthesis in a primer-independent manner using both virus-related and heterologous single-stranded (ss)RNA templates, with a polymerization rate of about 46 nt/min under optimal NTP concentration and temperature. NTPs with 2′-fluoro modifications were also accepted as substrates in the HetRV6 RdRp-catalyzed RNA polymerization reaction. HetRV6 RdRp transcribed viral RNA genome via semi-conservative mechanism. Furthermore, the enzyme demonstrated terminal nucleotidyl transferase (TNTase) activity. Presence of Mn2+ was required for the HetRV6 RdRp catalyzed enzymatic activities. In summary, our study shows that HetRV6 RdRp is an active replicase in vitro that can be potentially used in biotechnological applications, molecular biology, and biomedicine.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustina P. Bertolin ◽  
Florian Weissmann ◽  
Jingkun Zeng ◽  
Viktor Posse ◽  
Jennifer C. Milligan ◽  
...  

SummaryThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic has turned into the largest public health and economic crisis in recent history impacting virtually all sectors of society. There is a need for effective therapeutics to battle the ongoing pandemic. Repurposing existing drugs with known pharmacological safety profiles is a fast and cost-effective approach to identify novel treatments. The COVID-19 etiologic agent is the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus. Coronaviruses rely on the enzymatic activity of the replication-transcription complex (RTC) to multiply inside host cells. The RTC core catalytic component is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) holoenzyme. The RdRp is one of the key druggable targets for CoVs due to its essential role in viral replication, high degree of sequence and structural conservation and the lack of homologs in human cells. Here, we have expressed, purified and biochemically characterised active SARS-CoV-2 RdRp complexes. We developed a novel fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based strand displacement assay for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 RdRp activity suitable for a high-throughput format. As part of a larger research project to identify inhibitors for all the enzymatic activities encoded by SARS-CoV-2, we used this assay to screen a custom chemical library of over 5000 approved and investigational compounds for novel SARS-CoV-2 RdRp inhibitors. We identified 3 novel compounds (GSK-650394, C646 and BH3I-1) and confirmed suramin and suramin-like compounds as in vitro SARS-CoV-2 RdRp activity inhibitors. We also characterised the antiviral efficacy of these drugs in cell-based assays that we developed to monitor SARS-CoV-2 growth.


1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 4427-4429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Routhier ◽  
Jeremy A. Bruenn

ABSTRACT At least eight conserved motifs are visible in the totivirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP). We have systematically altered each of these in the Saccharomyces cerevisiaedouble-stranded RNA virus ScVL1 by substituting the conserved motifs from a giardiavirus. The results help define the conserved regions of the RDRP involved in polymerase function and those essential for other reasons.


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