JVI Figure table search 04
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Finke, S.
Right arrow Articles by Conzelmann, K.-K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Finke, S.
Right arrow Articles by Conzelmann, K.-K.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, May 1999, p. 3818-3825, Vol. 73, No. 5
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Virus Promoters Determine Interference by Defective RNAs: Selective Amplification of Mini-RNA Vectors and Rescue from cDNA by a 3' Copy-Back Ambisense Rabies Virus

Stefan Finke and Karl-Klaus Conzelmann*

Department of Clinical Virology, Federal Research Centre for Virus Diseases of Animals, D-72076 Tübingen, and Max von Pettenkofer Institut, Genzentrum, D-81377 Munich, Germany

Received 21 September 1998/Accepted 1 February 1999

Typical defective interfering (DI) RNAs are more successful in the competition for viral polymerase than the parental (helper) virus, which is mostly due to an altered DI promoter composition. Rabies virus (RV) internal deletion RNAs which possess the authentic RV terminal promoters, and which therefore are transcriptionally active and can be used as vectors for foreign gene expression, are poorly propagated in RV-infected cells and do not interfere with RV replication. To allow DI-like amplification and high-level gene expression from such mini-RNA vectors, we have used an engineered 3' copy-back (ambisense) helper RV in which the strong replication promoter of the antigenome was replaced with the 50-fold-weaker genome promoter. In cells coinfected with ambisense helper virus and mini-RNAs encoding chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) and luciferase, mini-RNAs were amplified to high levels. This was correlated with interference with helper virus replication, finally resulting in a clear predominance of mini-RNAs over helper virus. However, efficient successive passaging of mini-RNAs and high-level reporter gene activity could be achieved without adding exogenous helper virus, revealing a rather moderate degree of interference not precluding substantial HV propagation. Compared to infections with recombinant RV vectors expressing CAT, the availability of abundant mini-RNA templates led to increased levels of CAT mRNA such that CAT activities were augmented up to 250-fold, while virus gene transcription was kept to a minimum. We have also exploited the finding that internal deletion model RNAs behave like DI RNAs and are selectively amplified in the presence of ambisense helper virus to demonstrate for the first time RV-supported rescue of cDNA after transfection of mini-RNA cDNAs in ambisense RV-infected cells expressing T7 RNA polymerase.

* Corresponding author. Present address: Max von Pettenkofer Institut, Genzentrum, Feodor-Lynen-Str. 25, D-81377 Munich, Germany. Phone: 49 089 74017201. Fax: 49 089 74017250. E-mail: conzelma{at}lmb.uni-muenchen.de.

Journal of Virology, May 1999, p. 3818-3825, Vol. 73, No. 5
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. Mol. Cell. Biol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
Clin. Vaccine Immunol. ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 1999 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.