scholarly journals Deletion of M2 Gene Open Reading Frames 1 and 2 of Human Metapneumovirus: Effects on RNA Synthesis, Attenuation, and Immunogenicity

2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (11) ◽  
pp. 6588-6597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula J. Buchholz ◽  
Stéphane Biacchesi ◽  
Quynh N. Pham ◽  
Kim C. Tran ◽  
Lijuan Yang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The M2 gene of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) contains two overlapping open reading frames (ORFs), M2-1 and M2-2. The expression of separate M2-1 and M2-2 proteins from these ORFs was confirmed, and recombinant HMPVs were recovered in which expression of M2-1 and M2-2 was ablated individually or together [rΔM2-1, rΔM2-2, and rΔM2(1+2)]. Each M2 mutant virus directed efficient multicycle growth in Vero cells. The ability to recover HMPV lacking M2-1 contrasts with human respiratory syncytial virus, for which M2-1 is an essential transcription factor. Expression of the downstream HMPV M2-2 ORF was not reduced when translation of the upstream M2-1 ORF was silenced, indicating that it is initiated separately. The rΔM2-2 mutants exhibited a two- to fivefold increase in the accumulation of mRNA, normalized to the genome template, suggesting that M2-2 has a role in regulating RNA synthesis. Replication and immunogenicity were tested in hamsters. Animals infected intranasally with rΔM2-1 or rΔM2(1+2) did not have recoverable virus in the lungs or nasal turbinates on days 3 or 5 postinfection and did not develop HMPV-neutralizing serum antibodies or resistance to HMPV challenge. Thus, M2-1 appears to be essential for significant virus replication in vivo. In animals infected with rΔM2-2, virus was recovered from only 1 of 12 animals and only in the nasal turbinates on a single day. However, all of the animals developed a high titer of HMPV-neutralizing serum antibodies and were highly protected against challenge with wild-type HMPV. The HMPV rΔM2-2 virus is a promising and highly attenuated HMPV vaccine candidate.

2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (23) ◽  
pp. 14909-14922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyd Yount ◽  
Rhonda S. Roberts ◽  
Amy C. Sims ◽  
Damon Deming ◽  
Matthew B. Frieman ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) encodes several unique group-specific open reading frames (ORFs) relative to other known coronaviruses. To determine the significance of the SARS-CoV group-specific ORFs in virus replication in vitro and in mice, we systematically deleted five of the eight group-specific ORFs, ORF3a, OF3b, ORF6, ORF7a, and ORF7b, and characterized recombinant virus replication and gene expression in vitro. Deletion of the group-specific ORFs of SARS-CoV, either alone or in various combinations, did not dramatically influence replication efficiency in cell culture or in the levels of viral RNA synthesis. The greatest reduction in virus growth was noted following ORF3a deletion. SARS-CoV spike (S) glycoprotein does not encode a rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER)/Golgi retention signal, and it has been suggested that ORF3a interacts with and targets S glycoprotein retention in the rER/Golgi apparatus. Deletion of ORF3a did not alter subcellular localization of the S glycoprotein from distinct punctuate localization in the rER/Golgi apparatus. These data suggest that ORF3a plays little role in the targeting of S localization in the rER/Golgi apparatus. In addition, insertion of the 29-bp deletion fusing ORF8a/b into the single ORF8, noted in early-stage SARS-CoV human and civet cat isolates, had little if any impact on in vitro growth or RNA synthesis. All recombinant viruses replicated to wild-type levels in the murine model, suggesting that either the group-specific ORFs play little role in in vivo replication efficiency or that the mouse model is not of sufficient quality for discerning the role of the group-specific ORFs in disease origin and development.


2008 ◽  
Vol 190 (18) ◽  
pp. 6111-6118 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Rousseau ◽  
C. Loot ◽  
C. Turlan ◽  
S. Nolivos ◽  
M. Chandler

ABSTRACT IS911 is a bacterial insertion sequence composed of two consecutive overlapping open reading frames (ORFs [orfA and orfB]) encoding the transposase (OrfAB) as well as a regulatory protein (OrfA). These ORFs are bordered by terminal left and right inverted repeats (IRL and IRR, respectively) with several differences in nucleotide sequence. IS911 transposition is asymmetric: each end is cleaved on one strand to generate a free 3′-OH, which is then used as the nucleophile in attacking the opposite insertion sequence (IS) end to generate a free IS circle. This will be inserted into a new target site. We show here that the ends exhibit functional differences which, in vivo, may favor the use of one compared to the other during transposition. Electromobility shift assays showed that a truncated form of the transposase [OrfAB(1-149)] exhibits higher affinity for IRR than for IRL. While there was no detectable difference in IR activities during the early steps of transposition, IRR was more efficient during the final insertion steps. We show here that the differential activities between the two IRs correlate with the different affinities of OrfAB(1-149) for the IRs during assembly of the nucleoprotein complexes leading to transposition. We conclude that the two inverted repeats are not equivalent during IS911 transposition and that this asymmetry may intervene to determine the ordered assembly of the different protein-DNA complexes involved in the reaction.


2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (8) ◽  
pp. 4179-4182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Rivailler ◽  
Amitinder Kaur ◽  
R. Paul Johnson ◽  
Fred Wang

ABSTRACT A pathogenic isolate of rhesus cytomegalovirus (rhCMV 180.92) was cloned, sequenced, and annotated. Comparisons with the published rhCMV 68.1 genome revealed 8 open reading frames (ORFs) in isolate 180.92 that are absent in 68.1, 10 ORFs in 68.1 that are absent in 180.92, and 34 additional ORFs that were not previously annotated. Most of the differences appear to be due to genetic rearrangements in both isolates from a region that is frequently altered in human CMV (hCMV) during in vitro passage. These results indicate that the rhCMV ORF repertoire is larger than previously recognized. Like hCMV, understanding of the complete coding capacity of rhCMV is complicated by genomic instability and may require comparisons with additional isolates in vitro and in vivo.


Viruses ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Márquez-Jurado ◽  
Aitor Nogales ◽  
Ginés Ávila-Pérez ◽  
Francisco Iborra ◽  
Luis Martínez-Sobrido ◽  
...  

The recent outbreaks of Zika virus (ZIKV), its association with Guillain–Barré syndrome and fetal abnormalities, and the lack of approved vaccines and antivirals, highlight the importance of developing countermeasures to combat ZIKV disease. In this respect, infectious clones constitute excellent tools to accomplish these goals. However, flavivirus infectious clones are often difficult to work with due to the toxicity of some flavivirus sequences in bacteria. To bypass this problem, several alternative approaches have been applied for the generation of ZIKV clones including, among others, in vitro ligation, insertions of introns and using infectious subgenomic amplicons. Here, we report a simple and novel DNA-launched approach based on the use of a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) to generate a cDNA clone of Rio Grande do Norte Natal ZIKV strain. The sequence was identified from the brain tissue of an aborted fetus with microcephaly. The BAC clone was fully stable in bacteria and the infectious virus was efficiently recovered in Vero cells through direct delivery of the cDNA clone. The rescued virus yielded high titers in Vero cells and was pathogenic in a validated mouse model (A129 mice) of ZIKV infection. Furthermore, using this infectious clone we have generated a mutant ZIKV containing a single amino acid substitution (A175V) in the NS2A protein that presented reduced viral RNA synthesis in cell cultures, was highly attenuated in vivo and induced fully protection against a lethal challenge with ZIKV wild-type. This BAC approach provides a stable and reliable reverse genetic system for ZIKV that will help to identify viral determinants of virulence and facilitate the development of vaccine and therapeutic strategies.


2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (20) ◽  
pp. 10710-10718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Kwilas ◽  
Rachael M. Liesman ◽  
Liqun Zhang ◽  
Edward Walsh ◽  
Raymond J. Pickles ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) contains a heavily glycosylated 90-kDa attachment glycoprotein (G). Infection of HEp-2 and Vero cells in culture depends largely on virion G protein binding to cell surface glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). This GAG-dependent phenotype has been described for RSV grown in HEp-2 cells, but we have found that it is greatly reduced by a single passage in Vero cells. Virions produced from Vero cells primarily display a 55-kDa G glycoprotein. This smaller G protein represents a post-Golgi compartment form that is lacking its C terminus, indicating that the C terminus is required for GAG dependency. Vero cell-grown virus infected primary well-differentiated human airway epithelial (HAE) cell cultures 600-fold less efficiently than did HEp-2 cell-grown virus, indicating that the C terminus of the G protein is also required for virus attachment to this model of the in vivo target cells. This reduced infectivity for HAE cell cultures is not likely to be due to the loss of GAG attachment since heparan sulfate, the primary GAG used by RSV for attachment to HEp-2 cells, is not detectable at the apical surface of HAE cell cultures where RSV enters. Growing RSV stocks in Vero cells could dramatically reduce the initial infection of the respiratory tract in animal models or in volunteers receiving attenuated virus vaccines, thereby reducing the efficiency of infection or the efficacy of the vaccine.


1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 5439-5447
Author(s):  
P P Mueller ◽  
B M Jackson ◽  
P F Miller ◽  
A G Hinnebusch

The third and fourth AUG codons in GCN4 mRNA efficiently repress translation of the GCN4-coding sequences under normal growth conditions. The first AUG codon is approximately 30-fold less inhibitory and is required under amino acid starvation conditions to override the repressing effects of AUG codons 3 and 4. lacZ fusions constructed to functional, elongated versions of the first and fourth upstream open reading frames (URFs) were used to show that AUG codons 1 and 4 function similarly as efficient translational start sites in vivo, raising the possibility that steps following initiation distinguish the regulatory properties of URFs 1 and 4. In accord with this idea, we observed different consequences of changing the length and termination site of URF1 versus changing those of URFs 3 and 4. The latter were lengthened considerably, with little or no effect on regulation. In fact, the function of URFs 3 and 4 was partially reconstituted with a completely heterologous URF. By contrast, certain mutations that lengthen URF1 impaired its positive regulatory function nearly as much as removing its AUG codon did. The same mutations also made URF1 a much more inhibitory element when it was present alone in the mRNA leader. These results strongly suggest that URFs 1 and 4 both function in regulation as translated coding sequences. To account for the phenotypes of the URF1 mutations, we suggest the most ribosomes normally translate URF1 and that the mutations reduce the number of ribosomes that are able to complete URF1 translation and resume scanning downstream. This effect would impair URF1 positive regulatory function if ribosomes must first translate URF1 in order to overcome the strong translational block at the 3'-proximal URFs. Because URF1-lacZ fusions were translated at the same rate under repressing and derepressing conditions, it appears that modulating initiation at URF1 is not the means that is used to restrict the regulatory consequences of URF1 translation to starvation conditions.


Blood ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (9) ◽  
pp. 2936-2944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramachandran Ramalingam ◽  
Shahin Rafii ◽  
Stefan Worgall ◽  
Douglas E. Brough ◽  
Ronald G. Crystal

Abstract Although endothelial cells are quiescent and long-lived in vivo, when they are removed from blood vessels and cultured in vitro they die within days to weeks. In studies of the interaction of E1−E4+ replication–deficient adenovirus (Ad) vectors and human endothelium, the cells remained quiescent and were viable for prolonged periods. Evaluation of these cultures showed that E1−E4+ Ad vectors provide an “antiapoptotic” signal that, in association with an increase in the ratio of Bcl2 to Bax levels, induces the endothelial cells to enter a state of “suspended animation,” remaining viable for at least 30 days, even in the absence of serum and growth factors. Although the mechanisms initiating these events are unclear, the antiapoptoic signal requires the presence of E4 genes in the vector genome, suggesting that one or more E4 open reading frames of subgroup C Ad initiate a “pro-life” program that modifies cultured endothelial cells to survive for prolonged periods.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (20) ◽  
pp. 11268-11273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai Klymiuk ◽  
Mathias Müller ◽  
Gottfried Brem ◽  
Bernhard Aigner

ABSTRACT Endogenous retrovirus (ERV) sequences have been found in all mammals. In vitro and in vivo experiments revealed ERV activation and cross-species infection in several species. Sheep (Ovis aries) are used for various biotechnological purposes; however, they have not yet been comprehensively screened for ERV sequences. Therefore, the aim of the study was to classify the ERV sequences in the ovine genome (OERV) by analyzing the retroviral pro-pol sequences. Three OERV β families and nine OERV γ families were revealed. Novel open reading frames (ORF) in the amplified proviral fragment were found in one OERV β family and two OERV γ families. Hybrid OERV produced by putative recombination events were not detected. Quantitative analysis of the OERV sequences in the ovine genome revealed no relevant variations in the endogenous retroviral loads of different breeds. Expression analysis of different tissues from fetal and pregnant sheep detected mRNA from both gammaretrovirus families, showing ORF fragments. Thus, the release of retroviruses from sheep cells cannot be excluded.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 2053-2059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saket Choudhary ◽  
Wenzheng Li ◽  
Andrew D. Smith

Abstract Motivation Ribo-seq, a technique for deep-sequencing ribosome-protected mRNA fragments, has enabled transcriptome-wide monitoring of translation in vivo. It has opened avenues for re-evaluating the coding potential of open reading frames (ORFs), including many short ORFs that were previously presumed to be non-translating. However, the detection of translating ORFs, specifically short ORFs, from Ribo-seq data, remains challenging due to its high heterogeneity and noise. Results We present ribotricer, a method for detecting actively translating ORFs by directly leveraging the three-nucleotide periodicity of Ribo-seq data. Ribotricer demonstrates higher accuracy and robustness compared with other methods at detecting actively translating ORFs including short ORFs on multiple published datasets across species inclusive of Arabidopsis, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, human, mouse, rat, yeast and zebrafish. Availability and implementation Ribotricer is available at https://github.com/smithlabcode/ribotricer. All analysis scripts and results are available at https://github.com/smithlabcode/ribotricer-results. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


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