The Three Subunits of the Polymerase and the Nucleoprotein of Influenza B Virus Are the Minimum Set of Viral Proteins Required for Expression of a Model RNA Template (original) (raw)
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2002
Influenza B virus causes a significant amount of morbidity and mortality, yet the systems to produce high yield inactivated vaccines for these viruses have lagged behind the development of those for influenza A virus. We have established a plasmid-only reverse genetics system for the generation of recombinant influenza B virus that facilitates the generation of vaccine viruses without the need for time consuming coinfection and selection procedures currently required to produce reassortants. We cloned the eight viral cDNAs of influenza B/Yamanashi/166/98, which yields relatively high titers in embryonated chicken eggs, between RNA polymerase I and RNA polymerase II transcription units. Virus was detected as early as 3 days after transfection of cocultured COS7 and Madin-Darby canine kidney cells and achieved levels of 10(6)-10(7) plaque-forming units per ml of cell supernatant 6 days after transfection. The full-length sequence of the recombinant virus after passage into embryonated...
Promoter analysis of influenza virus RNA polymerase
Journal of Virology, 1989
Influenza virus polymerase, which was prepared depleted of viral RNA, was used to copy small RNA templates prepared from plasmid-encoded sequences. Template constructions containing only the 3' end of genomic RNA were shown to be efficiently copied, indicating that the promoter lay solely within the 15-nucleotide 3' terminus. Sequences not specific for the influenza virus termini were not copied, and, surprisingly, RNAs containing termini identical to those from plus-sense cRNA were copied at low levels. The specificity for recognition of the virus sense promoter was further defined by site-specific mutagenesis. It was also found that increased levels of viral protein were required in order to catalyze both the cap endonuclease-primed and primer-free RNA synthesis from these model templates, as well as from genomic-length RNAs. This finding indicates that the reconstituted system has catalytic properties very similar to those of native viral ribonucleoprotein complexes.
Journal of virology, 1996
We have shown previously that COS-1 cells infected with a vaccinia virus recombinant (vTF7-3) which expresses the T7 RNA polymerase gene and then transfected with four pGEM-derived plasmids encoding the influenza A virus core proteins (nucleoprotein, PB1, PB2, and PA polypeptides) can express a synthetic influenza virus-like chloramphenicol [correction of chloramphenical] acetyltransferase (CAT) RNA (I. Mena, S. de la Luna, C. Albo, J. Martín, A. Nieto, J. Ortín, and A. Portela, J. Gen. Virol. 75:2109-2114, 1994). Here we demonstrate that by supplying the vTF7-3-infected cells with plasmids containing cDNAs of all 10 influenza virus-encoded proteins, the transfected CAT RNA can be expressed and rescued into particles that are budded into the supernatant fluids. The released particles can transfer the enclosed CAT RNA to MDCK cultures and resemble true influenza virions in that they require trypsin treatment to deliver the RNA to fresh cells and are neutralized by a monoclonal antibo...
Generation of influenza A viruses entirely from cloned cDNAs
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1999
We describe a new reverse-genetics system that allows one to efficiently generate influenza A viruses entirely from cloned cDNAs. Human embryonic kidney cells (293T) were transfected with eight plasmids, each encoding a viral RNA of the A/WSN/33 (H1N1) or A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) virus, flanked by the human RNA polymerase I promoter and the mouse RNA polymerase I terminator—together with plasmids encoding viral nucleoprotein and the PB2, PB1, and PA viral polymerases. This strategy yielded >1 × 10 3 plaque-forming units (pfu) of virus per ml of supernatant at 48 hr posttransfection. The addition of plasmids expressing all of the remaining viral structural proteins led to a substantial increase in virus production, 3 × 10 4 –5 × 10 7 pfu/ml. We also used reverse genetics to generate a reassortant virus containing the PB1 gene of the A/PR/8/34 virus, with all other genes representing A/WSN/33. Additional viruses produced by this method had mutations in the PA gene or possessed a foreign ep...
Rescue of Influenza A Virus From Recombinant DNA
Journal of …, 1999
We have rescued influenza A virus by transfection of 12 plasmids into Vero cells. The eight individual negative-sense genomic viral RNAs were transcribed from plasmids containing human RNA polymerase I promoter and hepatitis delta virus ribozyme sequences. The three influenza virus polymerase proteins and the nucleoprotein were expressed from protein expression plasmids. This plasmid-based reverse genetics technique facilitates the generation of recombinant influenza viruses containing specific mutations in their genes.
Determination of influenza virus proteins required for genome replication
Journal of Virology, 1990
An artificial vaccinia virus vector-driven replication system for influenza virus RNA has been developed. In this system, a synthetic NS-like gene is replicated and expressed by influenza virus proteins supplied through infection with vaccinia virus recombinant vectors. The minimum subset of influenza virus proteins needed for specific replication and expression of the viral ribonucleoprotein was found to be the three polymerase proteins (PB1, PB2, and PA) and the nucleoprotein.
Recombinant Influenza A Viruses with Enhanced Levels of PB1 and PA Viral Protein Expression
Journal of Virology, 2012
Influenza A viruses containing the promoter mutations G3A/C8U in a given segment express increased levels of the corresponding viral protein during infection due to increased levels of mRNA or cRNA species. The replication of these recombinant viruses is attenuated, and they have an enhanced shedding of noninfectious particles and are incapable of antagonizing interferon (IFN) effectively. Our findings highlight the possibility of increasing influenza virus protein expression and the need for a delicate balance between influenza viral replication, protein expression, and assembly.
Journal of Virology, 1994
Influenza virus polymerase complexes that were expressed in the absence of genomic viral RNA and nucleoprotein were examined for endonuclease activity and transcriptase ability in vitro. Nuclear extracts of cells that express influenza virus polymerase through recombinant vaccinia virus infection did not display specific endonuclease activity in vitro. This polymerase presumably represents an early form of enzyme present in infected cells prior to ribonucleoprotein assembly. Upon addition of a virus-like model RNA template, containing the partially complementary sequence found at the ends of viral RNA, endonuclease activity is stimulated in a concentration-dependent and sequence-specific manner. Once stimulated, the polymerase is able to elongate from the added viral template. Thus, addition of viral template is required for polymerase activity, while the presence of nucleoprotein is not required for limited transcription. Also, full activation of this recombinant viral polymerase is dependent on the presence of both the 3' and 5' ends of the viral genome, as model RNA containing either end alone could not effectively trigger the endonuclease. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of influenza virus is made up of a complex of three viral proteins (PB1, PB2, and PA), associated with the eight nucleoprotein (NP) encapsidated viral gene segments. The initial function of the polymerase complex is the transcription of virus-specific mRNAs. This is accomplished via three distinct activities. First, the PB2 subunit has been shown to bind specifically to the cap structure of host-encoded cellular mRNAs (6, 7, 46, 47). These mRNAs are then cleaved 9 to 15 bases downstream of the cap structure