scholarly journals Transcription of hepatitis B virus by RNA polymerase II.

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 1766-1773 ◽  
Author(s):  
L B Rall ◽  
D N Standring ◽  
O Laub ◽  
W J Rutter

We employed an in vitro cell-free transcription system to locate RNA polymerase II promoters on the hepatitis B virus genome. The strongest promoter precedes the surface antigen (HBsAg) gene, which is comprised of a long (500 base pairs) presurface region as well as the mature HBsAg coding sequence. The origin of this transcript was localized by using truncated templates and S1 endonuclease mapping. The activity of the promoter was confirmed in transfection experiments in which the complete HBsAg gene was introduced into monkey kidney cells via a simian virus 40 expression vector. A second RNA polymerase II promoter preceding the HBcAg gene was also active in the cell-free system. The presence of multiple promoters in the hepatitis B virus genome suggests that the relative levels of viral-specific proteins detected in liver and serum may reflect differential or regulated promoter efficiency.

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 1766-1773
Author(s):  
L B Rall ◽  
D N Standring ◽  
O Laub ◽  
W J Rutter

We employed an in vitro cell-free transcription system to locate RNA polymerase II promoters on the hepatitis B virus genome. The strongest promoter precedes the surface antigen (HBsAg) gene, which is comprised of a long (500 base pairs) presurface region as well as the mature HBsAg coding sequence. The origin of this transcript was localized by using truncated templates and S1 endonuclease mapping. The activity of the promoter was confirmed in transfection experiments in which the complete HBsAg gene was introduced into monkey kidney cells via a simian virus 40 expression vector. A second RNA polymerase II promoter preceding the HBcAg gene was also active in the cell-free system. The presence of multiple promoters in the hepatitis B virus genome suggests that the relative levels of viral-specific proteins detected in liver and serum may reflect differential or regulated promoter efficiency.


1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 7546-7555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorjbal Dorjsuren ◽  
Yong Lin ◽  
Wenxiang Wei ◽  
Tatsuya Yamashita ◽  
Takahiro Nomura ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT To modulate transcription, regulatory factors communicate with basal transcription factors and/or RNA polymerases in a variety of ways. Previously, it has been reported that RNA polymerase II subunit 5 (RPB5) is one of the targets of hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) and that both HBx and RPB5 specifically interact with general transcription factor IIB (TFIIB), implying that RPB5 is one of the communicating subunits of RNA polymerase II involved in transcriptional regulation. In this context, we screened for a host protein(s) that interacts with RPB5. By far-Western blot screening, we cloned a novel gene encoding a 508-amino-acid-residue RPB5-binding protein from a HepG2 cDNA library and designated it RPB5-mediating protein (RMP). Expression of RMP mRNA was detected ubiquitously in various tissues. Bacterially expressed recombinant RMP strongly bound RPB5 but neither HBx nor TATA-binding protein in vitro. Endogenous RMP was immunologically detected interacting with assembled RPB5 in RNA polymerase in mammalian cells. The central part of RMP is responsible for RPB5 binding, and the RMP-binding region covers both the TFIIB- and HBx-binding sites of RPB5. Overexpression of RMP, but not mutant RMP lacking the RPB5-binding region, inhibited HBx transactivation of reporters with different HBx-responsive cis elements in transiently transfected cells. The repression by RMP was counteracted by HBx in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, RMP has an inhibitory effect on transcriptional activation by VP16 in the absence of HBx. These results suggest that RMP negatively modulates RNA polymerase II function by binding to RPB5 and that HBx counteracts the negative role of RMP on transcription indirectly by interacting with RPB5.


2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 955-961 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-C. Jacquard ◽  
M.-N. Brunelle ◽  
C. Pichoud ◽  
D. Durantel ◽  
S. Carrouée-Durantel ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The fluorinated guanosine analog 2′,3′-dideoxy-3′-fluoroguanosine (FLG) was shown to inhibit wild-type (wt) hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication in a human hepatoma cell line permanently expressing HBV. Experiments performed in the duck model of HBV infection also showed its in vivo antiviral activity. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of inhibition of FLG on HBV replication and its profile of antiviral activity against different HBV or duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) drug-resistant mutants. We found that FLG-triphosphate inhibits weakly the priming of the reverse transcription compared to adefovir-diphosphate in a cell-free system assay allowing the expression of an enzymatically active DHBV reverse transcriptase. It inhibits more potently wt DHBV minus-strand DNA synthesis compared to lamivudine-triphosphate and shows a similar activity compared to adefovir-diphosphate. FLG-triphosphate was most likely a competitive inhibitor of dGTP incorporation and a DNA chain terminator. In Huh7 cells transiently transfected with different HBV constructs, FLG inhibited similarly the replication of wt, lamivudine-resistant, adefovir-resistant, and lamivudine-plus-adefovir-resistant HBV mutants. These results were consistent with those obtained in the DHBV polymerase assay using the same drug-resistant polymerase mutants. In conclusion, our data provide new insights in the mechanism of action of FLG-triphosphate on HBV replication and demonstrate its inhibitory activity on drug-resistant mutant reverse transcriptases in vitro. Furthermore, our results provide the rationale for further clinical evaluation of FLG in the treatment of drug-resistant virus infection and in the setting of combination therapy to prevent or delay drug resistance.


1997 ◽  
Vol 272 (11) ◽  
pp. 7132-7139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Lin ◽  
Takahiro Nomura ◽  
JaeHun Cheong ◽  
Dorjbal Dorjsuren ◽  
Katsuhira Iida ◽  
...  

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 1774-1782
Author(s):  
D N Standring ◽  
L B Rall ◽  
O Laub ◽  
W J Rutter

We demonstrated that cloned hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA directs the synthesis of a 700-base RNA (HBV 700) by RNA polymerase III in a cell-free transcription system. HBV 700 is the only transcript known to originate from the viral short strand and has been mapped to the region between roughly 1,635 and 954 base pairs on the viral map, between the surface and core antigen coding sequences but overlapping and opposing the putative DNA polymerase and B protein genes. The in vitro initiation sites for the HBV 700 and core antigen RNAs are only 50 bases apart, suggesting that these two genes may be coordinately regulated. Moreover, both of these initiation sites appear to lie within the approximately 300-base double-stranded region (the nick region) between the 5' end of the HBV short strand and the nick in the viral long strand. We found two unusual sequence elements in the nick region that are conserved between the human and woodchuck viruses.


1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2021-2033 ◽  
Author(s):  
D E Ayer ◽  
W S Dynan

Unlike most genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II, the simian virus 40 late transcription unit does not have a TATA box. To determine what sequences are required for initiation at the major late mRNA cap site of simian virus 40, clustered point mutations were constructed and tested for transcriptional activity in vitro and in vivo. Three promoter elements were defined. The first is centered 31 base pairs upstream of the cap site in a position normally reserved for a TATA box. The second is at the cap site. The third occupies a novel position centered 28 base pairs downstream of the cap site within a protein-coding sequence. The ability of RNA polymerase II to recognize this promoter suggests that there is greater variation in promoter architecture than had been believed previously.


1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 2250-2258 ◽  
Author(s):  
C C Simonsen ◽  
A D Levinson

We examined the transcription of the hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) gene in COS cells transfected with simian virus 40-based recombinant plasmids. When positioned behind the simian virus 40 late promoter, three transcripts were identified which hybridized to the HBsAg gene: a 2,000-nucleotide transcript colinear with a gene, a 1,100-nucleotide transcript representing a spliced molecule in which a major portion of the sequences encoding HBsAg were deleted, and an 800-nucleotide transcript derived primarily from sequences 3' to the HBsAg gene. The splice acceptor site utilized by the 1,100-nucleotide transcript is located immediately upstream of an open reading frame of unknown function contained within the 3' nontranslated region of the HBsAg gene. The HBsAg-specific mRNA species terminate 12 to 19 base pairs 3' of the sequence UAUAAA, similar to the concensus hexanucleotide which is thought to promote polyadenylation (AAUAAA). We constructed a series of plasmids with progressive deletions from the region surrounding where these transcripts terminate. Analysis of mRNA produced by cells transfected with these plasmids indicated that the signal hexanucleotide is in itself unable to promote the efficient processing of mRNA in the absence of downstream hepatitis B virus sequences. Processing proceeds properly, however, from plasmids containing an additional 30 nucleotides 3' of this signal.


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