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 Groseth, A.
Right arrow Articles by Flick, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Groseth, A.
Right arrow Articles by Flick, R.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, April 2005, p. 4425-4433, Vol. 79, No. 7
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.79.7.4425-4433.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

RNA Polymerase I-Driven Minigenome System for Ebola Viruses

Allison Groseth,1,2 Heinz Feldmann,1,2* Steven Theriault,1,2 Gülsah Mehmetoglu,1,3 and Ramon Flick1,2,4

National Laboratory for Zoonotic Diseases and Special Pathogens, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada,1 Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba,2 Institute of Virology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany,3 Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas4

Received 26 August 2004/ Accepted 12 November 2004

In general, Ebola viruses are well known for their ability to cause severe hemorrhagic fever in both human and nonhuman primates. However, despite substantial sequence homology to other members of the family Filoviridae, Reston ebolavirus displays reduced pathogenicity for nonhuman primates and has never been demonstrated to cause clinical disease in humans, despite its ability to cause infection. In order to develop a tool to explore potential roles for transcription and replication in the reduced pathogenicity of Reston ebolavirus, we developed an RNA polymerase I (Pol I)-driven minigenome system. Here we demonstrate successful Reston ebolavirus minigenome rescue, including encapsidation, transcription, and replication, as well as the packaging of minigenome transcripts into progeny particles. The Pol I-driven Reston ebolavirus minigenome system provides a higher signal intensity with less background (higher signal-to-noise ratio) than a comparable T7-driven Reston ebolavirus minigenome system which was developed simultaneously. Successful Reston ebolavirus minigenome rescue was also achieved by the use of helper plasmids derived from the closely related Zaire ebolavirus or the more distantly related Lake Victoria marburgvirus. The use of heterologous helper plasmids in the Reston ebolavirus minigenome system yielded levels of reporter expression which far exceeded the level produced by the homologous helper plasmids. This comparison between minigenomes and helper plasmids from different filovirus species and genera indicates that inherent differences in the transcription and/or replication capacities of the ribonucleoprotein complexes of pathogenic and apathogenic filoviruses may exist, as these observations were confirmed in a Lake Victoria marburgvirus minigenome system.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, 1015 Arlington St., Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada. Phone: (204) 789-6019. Fax: (204) 789-2140. E-mail: Heinz_Feldmann{at}hc-sc.gc.ca.

Journal of Virology, April 2005, p. 4425-4433, Vol. 79, No. 7
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.79.7.4425-4433.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Enterlein, S., Schmidt, K. M., Schumann, M., Conrad, D., Krahling, V., Olejnik, J., Muhlberger, E. (2009). The Marburg Virus 3' Noncoding Region Structurally and Functionally Differs from That of Ebola Virus. J. Virol. 83: 4508-4519 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Habjan, M., Penski, N., Spiegel, M., Weber, F. (2008). T7 RNA polymerase-dependent and -independent systems for cDNA-based rescue of Rift Valley fever virus. J. Gen. Virol. 89: 2157-2166 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Halfmann, P., Kim, J. H., Ebihara, H., Noda, T., Neumann, G., Feldmann, H., Kawaoka, Y. (2008). Generation of biologically contained Ebola viruses. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105: 1129-1133 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Hoenen, T., Groseth, A., Kolesnikova, L., Theriault, S., Ebihara, H., Hartlieb, B., Bamberg, S., Feldmann, H., Stroher, U., Becker, S. (2006). Infection of Naive Target Cells with Virus-Like Particles: Implications for the Function of Ebola Virus VP24. J. Virol. 80: 7260-7264 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Johnson, R. F., McCarthy, S. E., Godlewski, P. J., Harty, R. N. (2006). Ebola Virus VP35-VP40 Interaction Is Sufficient for Packaging 3E-5E Minigenome RNA into Virus-Like Particles.. J. Virol. 80: 5135-5144 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Flatz, L., Bergthaler, A., de la Torre, J. C., Pinschewer, D. D. (2006). Recovery of an arenavirus entirely from RNA polymerase I/II-driven cDNA. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 4663-4668 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Enterlein, S., Volchkov, V., Weik, M., Kolesnikova, L., Volchkova, V., Klenk, H.-D., Muhlberger, E. (2006). Rescue of Recombinant Marburg Virus from cDNA Is Dependent on Nucleocapsid Protein VP30. J. Virol. 80: 1038-1043 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»