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Journal of Virology, October 1999, p. 7933-7942, Vol. 73, No. 10
Department of Microbiology, University of
Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294
Received 9 March 1999/Accepted 22 June 1999
The nodavirus flock house virus (FHV) has a bipartite,
positive-sense, RNA genome that encodes the catalytic subunit of the RNA replicase and the viral capsid protein precursor on separate genomic segments (RNA1 and RNA2, respectively). RNA1 can replicate autonomously when transfected into permissive cells, allowing study of
the kinetics of RNA1 replication in the absence of either RNA2 or
capsid proteins. However, RNA1 replication ceases ca. 3 days after
transfection despite the presence of replication-competent RNA. We
examined this inhibition by inducing the expression of RNA1 in cells
from a cDNA copy that was under the control of a hormone-regulated RNA
polymerase II promoter. This system reproduced the shutoff of RNA
replication when DNA-templated primary transcription was turned off.
Continued primary transcription partially alleviated the shutoff and
maintained the rate of RNA replication for several days at a
steady-state level approximately one-third that of the peak rate. After
shutoff, RNA replication could be restored by transferring the
resulting intracellular RNA to fresh cells or by reinducing primary
transcription, indicating that cessation of replication occurred
despite the competence of both the viral RNA and the cytoplasmic
environment. These data suggest that there is a mechanism by which
replication is shut off at late times after transfection, which may
reflect the natural endpoint of the replicative cycle.
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Induction and Maintenance of Autonomous Flock
House Virus RNA1 Replication
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology, BBRB 373/17, 845 19th Street South, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-2170. Phone: (205) 934-0454. Fax:
(205) 934-1636. E-mail:
kyle_johnson{at}microbio.uab.edu.
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