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Journal of Virology, October 2000, p. 9071-9077, Vol. 74, No. 19
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Influence of the Theiler's Virus L* Protein on Macrophage Infection, Viral Persistence, and Neurovirulence

Olivier van Eyll and Thomas Michiels*

Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology, Université Catholique de Louvain, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium

Received 16 February 2000/Accepted 5 July 2000

The genome of picornaviruses contains a large open reading frame (ORF) translated as a precursor polypeptide that is processed to yield all the proteins necessary for the viral life cycle. In persistent but not in neurovirulent strains of Theiler's virus, an overlapping ORF encodes an additional 18-kDa protein called L*. We confirmed previous work showing that the L* ORF of persistent strains facilitates the infection of macrophage cell lines, and we present evidence that this effect is due to the L* protein itself rather than to competition for the translation of the two overlapping ORFs. The introduction of an AUG codon to restore the L* ORF of the neurovirulent GDVII strain also enhanced the infection of macrophages, in spite of the divergent evolution of this protein. The presence or the absence of the L* AUG initiation codon had only a weak influence on the neurovirulence of the GDVII strain and on the persistence of the DA1 strain. The results obtained with DA1 in vivo contrast with the results reported previously for DAFL3, another molecular clone of the same virus strain, where the AUG-to-ACG mutation of the L* initiation codon totally blocked viral persistence (G. D. Ghadge, L. Ma, S. Sato, J. Kim, and R. P. Roos, J. Virol. 72:8605-8612, 1998). Thus, a factor that is critical for the persistence of a given clone of Theiler's virus is dispensable for the persistence of a closely related clone, indicating that different adjustments in the expression of persistence determinants occur in related viral strains.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology, Université Catholique de Louvain, MIPA-VIRO 74-49, 74 ave. Hippocrate, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Phone: 32 2 764 74 29. Fax: 32 2 764 74 95. E-mail: michiels{at}mipa.ucl.ac.be.

Journal of Virology, October 2000, p. 9071-9077, Vol. 74, No. 19
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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