Binding of a cellular protein to the gibbon ape leukemia virus enhancer

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 2735-2744
Author(s):  
J P Quinn ◽  
N Holbrook ◽  
D Levens

The gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) contains enhancer activity within its long terminal repeat. In the GALV Seato strain this activity resides in a 48-base-pair (bp) repeated element. We demonstrate the existence of a cellular protein which binds in this region of the Seato strain. A sensitive method for enriching protein-DNA complexes from crude extracts coupled with exonuclease and DNase footprint analysis revealed the specific binding of this protein to a 21-bp region within each repeated element. A 22-bp oligonucleotide fragment defined solely by the 21-bp footprint binds a protein in vitro and displays enhancer activity in vivo, suggesting that this protein is a major determinant of GALV enhancer activity. The protein is present in three cell lines which are positive for enhancer activity and is not detected in Jurkat cells, which are negative for enhancer activity. Only GALV long-terminal-repeat variants which support high levels of enhancer activity in vivo compete with this protein for specific binding in vitro, suggesting a potential role for the protein in determining enhancer activity. This protein binding is not inhibited by competition with heterologous retroviral enhancers, demonstrating that it is not a ubiquitous retroviral enhancer binding protein.

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 2735-2744 ◽  
Author(s):  
J P Quinn ◽  
N Holbrook ◽  
D Levens

The gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) contains enhancer activity within its long terminal repeat. In the GALV Seato strain this activity resides in a 48-base-pair (bp) repeated element. We demonstrate the existence of a cellular protein which binds in this region of the Seato strain. A sensitive method for enriching protein-DNA complexes from crude extracts coupled with exonuclease and DNase footprint analysis revealed the specific binding of this protein to a 21-bp region within each repeated element. A 22-bp oligonucleotide fragment defined solely by the 21-bp footprint binds a protein in vitro and displays enhancer activity in vivo, suggesting that this protein is a major determinant of GALV enhancer activity. The protein is present in three cell lines which are positive for enhancer activity and is not detected in Jurkat cells, which are negative for enhancer activity. Only GALV long-terminal-repeat variants which support high levels of enhancer activity in vivo compete with this protein for specific binding in vitro, suggesting a potential role for the protein in determining enhancer activity. This protein binding is not inhibited by competition with heterologous retroviral enhancers, demonstrating that it is not a ubiquitous retroviral enhancer binding protein.


2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (9) ◽  
pp. 5653-5664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Maury ◽  
Robert J. Thompson ◽  
Quentin Jones ◽  
Sarahann Bradley ◽  
Tara Denke ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is a lentivirus with in vivo cell tropism primarily for tissue macrophages; however, in vitro the virus can be adapted to fibroblasts and other cell types. Tropism adaptation is associated with both envelope and long terminal repeat (LTR) changes, and findings strongly suggest that these regions of the genome influence cell tropism and virulence. Furthermore, high levels of genetic variation have been well documented in both of these genomic regions. However, specific EIAV nucleotide or amino acid changes that are responsible for cell tropism changes have not been identified. A study was undertaken with the highly virulent, macrophage-tropic strain of virus EIAVwyo to identify LTR changes associated with alterations in cell tropism. We found the stepwise generation of a new transcription factor binding motif within the enhancer that was associated with adaptation of EIAV to endothelial cells and fibroblasts. An LTR that contained the new motif had enhanced transcriptional activity in fibroblasts, whereas the new site did not alter LTR activity in a macrophage cell line. This finding supports a previous prediction that selection for new LTR genetic variants may be a consequence of cell-specific selective pressures. Additional investigations of the EIAVwyo LTR were performed in vivo to determine if LTR evolution could be detected over the course of a 3-year infection. Consistent with previous in vivo findings, we observed no changes in the enhancer region of the LTR over that time period, indicating that the EIAVwyo LTR was evolutionarily stable in vivo.


2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (22) ◽  
pp. 8246-8254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carine Meignin ◽  
Jean-Luc Bailly ◽  
Frédérick Arnaud ◽  
Bernard Dastugue ◽  
Chantal Vaury

ABSTRACT Idefix is a long terminal repeat (LTR)-retrotransposon present in Drosophila melanogaster which shares similarities with vertebrates retroviruses both in its genomic arrangement and in the mechanism of transposition. Like in retroviruses, its two LTRs flank a long 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) and three open reading frames referred to as the gag, pol, and env genes. Here we report that its 5′UTR, located upstream of the gag gene, can fold into highly structured domains that are known to be incompatible with efficient translation by ribosome scanning. Using dicistronic plasmids analyzed by both (i) in vitro transcription and translation in rabbit reticulocyte or wheat germ lysates and (ii) in vivo expression in transgenic flies, we show that the 5′UTR of Idefix exhibits an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) activity that is able to promote translation of a downstream cistron in a cap-independent manner. The functional state of this novel IRES depends on eukaryotic factors that are independent of their host origin. However, in vivo, its function can be down-regulated by trans-acting factors specific to tissues or developmental stages of its host. We identify one of these trans-acting factors as the Gag protein encoded by Idefix itself. Our data support a model in which nascent Gag is able to block translation initiated from the viral mRNA and thus its own translation. These data highlight the fact that LTR-retrotransposons may autoregulate their replication cycle through their Gag production.


1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 2180-2190 ◽  
Author(s):  
A L Joyner ◽  
A Bernstein

We describe the generation of infectious retroviruses containing foreign genes by an in vivo recombination-deletion mechanism. Cotransfection into mouse cells of chimeric plasmids carrying a murine retrovirus 5' long terminal repeat and either the thymidine kinase (tk) gene of herpesvirus or the dominant selectable bacterial gene for neomycin resistance (neo), along with a clone of Moloney murine leukemia virus, results in the generation of infectious thymidine kinase or neomycin-resistant viruses. Expression of the selectable marker in these viruses can be regulated by the homologous transcriptional promoter of the gene, by the promoter contained within the Friend spleen focus-forming virus long terminal repeat, or by the simian virus 40 early region promoter. In all cases, the rescued viruses appeared to arise by recombination in vivo with Moloney murine leukemia virus sequences, resulting in the acquisition of the Moloney 3' long terminal repeat and variable amounts of the 3' adjacent Moloney genome. In two of the thymidine kinase constructs where tk was inserted 200 base pairs downstream from the long terminal repeat, the rescued viruses acquired a large part of the murine leukemia virus genome, including the region involved in packaging genomic RNA into virions. The generation of infectious neomycin-resistant virus is associated with deletions of simian virus 40 splicing and polyadenylation sequences. These results demonstrate that nonhomologous recombination and deletion events can take place in animal cells, resulting in the acquisition or removal of cis-acting sequences required for, or inhibitory to, retrovirus infectivity.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 1054-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Bigornia ◽  
Kristen M. Lockridge ◽  
Ellen E. Sparger

ABSTRACT AP-1- and ATF-binding sites are cis-acting transcriptional elements within the U3 domain of the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) long terminal repeat (LTR) that serve as targets for cellular activation pathways and may regulate virus replication. We report that FIV LTR mutant proviruses encoding U3 deletions of the ATF-binding sequence exhibited restricted virus expression and replication in both feline lymphocytes and macrophages. In contrast, deletion of the AP-1 site had negligible effects on virus expression and replication. FIV LTR mutant proviruses encoding deletions of both the AP-1 and ATF sites or a 72-bp deletion encompassing the AP-1 site, duplicated C/EBP sites, and ATF sites were severely restricted for virus expression. These results demonstrate that deletion of either the ATF-binding site or multiplecis-acting transcriptional elements attenuates FIV. These attenuated FIV mutants provide opportunities to characterize the role of cis-acting elements in virus replication in vivo and to test LTR mutants as attenuated virus vaccines.


1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (7) ◽  
pp. 5526-5534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique Kiermer ◽  
Carine Van Lint ◽  
Delphine Briclet ◽  
Caroline Vanhulle ◽  
Richard Kettmann ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) replication is controlled by bothcis- and trans-acting elements. The virus-encoded transactivator, Tax, is necessary for efficient transcription from the BLV promoter, although it is not present during the early stages of infection. Therefore, sequences that control Tax-independent transcription must play an important role in the initiation of viral gene expression. This study demonstrates that the R-U5 sequence of BLV stimulates Tax-independent reporter gene expression directed by the BLV promoter. R-U5 was also stimulatory when inserted immediately downstream from the transcription initiation site of a heterologous promoter. Progressive deletion analysis of this region revealed that a 46-bp element corresponding to the 5′ half of U5 is principally responsible for the stimulation. This element exhibited enhancer activity when inserted upstream or downstream from the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase promoter. This enhancer contains a binding site for the interferon regulatory factors IRF-1 and IRF-2. A 3-bp mutation that destroys the IRF recognition site caused a twofold decrease in Tax-independent BLV long terminal repeat-driven gene expression. These observations suggest that the IRF binding site in the U5 region of BLV plays a role in the initiation of virus replication.


2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (13) ◽  
pp. 5168-5179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takumi Matsumoto ◽  
Mitsuhiro Hamada ◽  
Mizuko Osanai ◽  
Haruhiko Fujiwara

ABSTRACT Non-long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons are major components of the higher eukaryotic genome. Most of them have two open reading frames (ORFs): ORF2 encodes mainly the endonuclease and reverse transcriptase domains, but the functional features of ORF1 remain largely unknown. We used telomere-specific non-LTR retrotransposon SART1 in Bombyx mori and clarified essential roles of the ORF1 protein (ORF1p) in ribonucleoprotein (RNP) formation by novel approaches: in vitro reconstitution and in vivo/in vitro retrotransposition assays using the baculovirus expression system. Detailed mutation analyses showed that each of the three CCHC motifs at the ORF1 C terminus are essential for SART1 retrotransposition and are involved in packaging the SART1 mRNA specifically into RNP. We also demonstrated that amino acid residues 555 to 567 and 285 to 567 in the SART1 ORF1p are crucial for the ORF1p-ORF1p and ORF1p-ORF2p interactions, respectively. The loss of these domains abolishes protein-protein interaction, leading to SART1 retrotransposition deficiency. These data suggest that systematic formation of RNP composed of ORF1p, ORF2p, and mRNA is mainly mediated by ORF1p domains and is a common, essential step for many non-LTR retrotransposons encoding the two ORFs.


1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 2180-2190
Author(s):  
A L Joyner ◽  
A Bernstein

We describe the generation of infectious retroviruses containing foreign genes by an in vivo recombination-deletion mechanism. Cotransfection into mouse cells of chimeric plasmids carrying a murine retrovirus 5' long terminal repeat and either the thymidine kinase (tk) gene of herpesvirus or the dominant selectable bacterial gene for neomycin resistance (neo), along with a clone of Moloney murine leukemia virus, results in the generation of infectious thymidine kinase or neomycin-resistant viruses. Expression of the selectable marker in these viruses can be regulated by the homologous transcriptional promoter of the gene, by the promoter contained within the Friend spleen focus-forming virus long terminal repeat, or by the simian virus 40 early region promoter. In all cases, the rescued viruses appeared to arise by recombination in vivo with Moloney murine leukemia virus sequences, resulting in the acquisition of the Moloney 3' long terminal repeat and variable amounts of the 3' adjacent Moloney genome. In two of the thymidine kinase constructs where tk was inserted 200 base pairs downstream from the long terminal repeat, the rescued viruses acquired a large part of the murine leukemia virus genome, including the region involved in packaging genomic RNA into virions. The generation of infectious neomycin-resistant virus is associated with deletions of simian virus 40 splicing and polyadenylation sequences. These results demonstrate that nonhomologous recombination and deletion events can take place in animal cells, resulting in the acquisition or removal of cis-acting sequences required for, or inhibitory to, retrovirus infectivity.


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