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Journal of Virology, July 2001, p. 6676-6681, Vol. 75, No. 14
Institute of Virology and Immunology,
University of Würzburg, 97078 Würzburg, Germany
Received 28 February 2001/Accepted 23 April 2001
We have used vaccinia virus as a vector to clone a 22.5-kbp cDNA
that represents the 5' and 3' ends of the human coronavirus 229E (HCoV
229E) genome, the HCoV 229E replicase gene, and a single reporter
gene (coding for green fluorescent protein [GFP]) located downstream of a regulatory element for coronavirus mRNA transcription. When RNA transcribed from this cDNA was transfected into BHK-21 cells,
a small percentage of cells displayed strong fluorescence. A region of
the mRNA encoding GFP was amplified by PCR and shown to have the unique
mRNA leader-body junction indicative of coronavirus-mediated transcription. These data show that the coronavirus replicase gene
products suffice for discontinuous subgenomic mRNA transcription.
Coronaviruses are enveloped
positive-strand RNA viruses with a genome size of approximately 30 kb.
More than two-thirds of the genome encodes an RNA-dependent
RNA-replicase, which is expressed from the viral genomic RNA
(13, 21). The replicase gene is comprised of two large
overlapping open reading frames (ORFs), ORF1a and ORF1b, which are
translated as two polyprotein precursors, pp1a and pp1ab. The larger
protein, pp1ab, is expressed by programmed ( A key feature of coronaviruses is their unique transcription strategy.
This strategy leads to the synthesis of a nested set of 3' coterminal
subgenomic mRNAs, encoding mainly structural proteins.
It has been shown that the synthesis of each subgenomic mRNA involves a discontinuous step by which the so-called 3' body sequence is fused to the genomic 5' leader sequence
(22). This process most probably occurs during the
synthesis of subgenomic, negative-strand templates
(19, 28). The fusion of leader and body sequences during
discontinuous transcription is determined, at least in part, by
cis-acting elements, termed transcription-associated sequences (TAS). These elements are located at the 5' end of the genome
and at 3' proximal sites corresponding to the individual transcription
units (5).
Until recently, the study of coronavirus transcription was essentially
restricted to the analysis of defective RNA templates that depend upon
transcriptional functions provided by a helper virus (15).
Nevertheless, some general characteristics of coronavirus transcription
have been revealed. Thus, it has been shown that coronavirus-specific
transcripts can be generated from defective RNA templates that contain
one or several TAS elements (15, 29). Also, mutagenesis of
TAS elements in defective RNAs has revealed that TAS base pairing plays
an important role in coronavirus discontinuous transcription
(27). However, the use of defective RNAs to study
coronavirus transcription has focused attention on the template
RNA rather than the viral gene products that provide transcriptional functions.
Our limited knowledge of coronavirus replicase proteins has been
obtained mainly by biochemical and genetic studies. For example, the in
vitro analysis of recombinant proteins has shown that coronavirus replicase polypeptides have proteinase (31), nucleoside
triphosphatase (NTPase) (9), and RNA duplex unwinding
(20) activities. At the same time, genetic analysis of
temperature-sensitive mutants that are defective in RNA synthesis has
been used to correlate a limited number of specific mutations in
replicase polypetides with defects in positive- and negative-strand RNA
synthesis (S. Siddell, D. Sawicki, Y. Meyer, V. Thiel, and S. Sawicki, submitted for publication). These studies need to be
continued and extended, but it is also clear that we need to complement
them with a reverse genetic approach. Indeed, several different reverse
genetic methods, including targeted RNA recombination (7, 10,
12) and the construction of infectious cDNA copies of both human
and porcine coronavirus genomes (2, 24, 30), have been
developed for coronaviruses in the last few years. Unfortunately, these
systems are all dependent on the rescue of recombinant coronaviruses
and, therefore, are not particularly suitable for the analysis of
defective genomes encoding mainly replicative and transcriptional functions.
The analysis of replication and transcription in many positive-strand
RNA viruses has been greatly facilitated by the use of synthetic RNAs
that, once introduced in susceptible cells, are able to replicate
autonomously; i.e., so-called replicons (1, 6, 8, 14).
This approach has been used to study, for example, the replication and
transcription of arteriviruses, a family of RNA viruses that are
grouped together with the coronaviruses in the order
Nidovirales. It has been demonstrated that base pairing between TAS elements guides the process of arterivirus discontinuous transcription (28) and that the arterivirus replicase, in
the absence of any further structural or nonstructural proteins, is sufficient for genome replication and subgenomic mRNA
transcription (17). In a particularly elegant study,
Tijms et al. (26) have shown that the arterivirus zinc
finger-containing papain-like proteinase nsp1 has an essential role in
subgenomic mRNA synthesis.
In this paper, we describe a system that will complement existing
methods to analyze coronavirus discontinuous transcription. Also, using
this system, we demonstrate that the coronavirus replicase gene
products are the only viral proteins required for coronavirus subgenomic RNA synthesis.
Cloning of a recombinant vaccinia virus, HCoV-vec-1.
The
overall strategy we adopted is illustrated in Fig.
1. Briefly, cDNA fragments were ligated
in vitro to produce a 22.5-kbp cDNA. This cDNA represents the
5'-proximal 20.6 kb of the HCoV 229E genome encompassing the entire
replicase gene, the gene encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP), the
3' proximal 1 kb of the genome, and a synthetic poly(A) tail of 42 nucleotides (nt). The start of the GFP ORF is located 1 nt downstream
of the ORF1b stop codon and 7 nt downstream of the TAS element that
normally controls the discontinuous transcription of mRNA2. The
cDNA was ligated in vitro to NotI-cleaved vaccinia virus
DNA, and a recombinant vaccinia virus, vHCoV-vec-1, was rescued by
transfection into fowlpox-infected CV-1 cells. The recombinant
vHCoV-vec-1 DNA was then used as a template for the in vitro
transcription of a synthetic HCoV-vec-1 RNA. This RNA was transfected
into BHK-21 cells that were subsequently monitored for the expression
of GFP.
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.14.6676-6681.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Viral Replicase Gene Products Suffice for
Coronavirus Discontinuous Transcription

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ABSTRACT
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1) ribosomal
frameshifting. Extensive processing of the polyproteins by
virus-encoded proteinases leads to the formation of a
replication-transcription complex in the cytoplasm of the infected cell
(31).

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FIG. 1.
Strategy for the construction of a coronavirus-based
vector RNA that mediates the expression of GFP. The structural
relationship among the HCoV 229E ORFs, HCoV 229E genomic RNA,
plasmid, PCR cDNA fragments, and in vitro RNA transcripts is shown. The
position of three silent mutations, which create a unique
FseI (*) site, is depicted in the recombinant cDNA
fragments. Relevant restriction sites are indicated. The cDNA fragments
pEB, PCR-BF (which represents the HCoV 229E genomic region [nt
5200 to 7000] that is unstable in bacterial cloning systems), and pFE
were assembled by in vitro ligation with the restriction sites
BglII and FseI. Subsequent ligation of
the resulting cDNA with NotI-cleaved vNotI/tk vaccinia
virus DNA produced the recombinant vaccinia virus vHCoV-vec
DNA. Recombinant vaccina virus vHCoV-vec-1 was recovered and RNA
transcripts were produced in vitro by using genomic vHCoV-vec-1
DNA and bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase. The HCoV-vec-1 RNA was
transfected into BHK-21 cells and monitored for the expression of GFP
(see text for details).
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In vitro synthesis and functional analysis of HCoV-vec-1 RNA.
The recombinant vaccinia virus vHCoV-vec-1 was propagated to produce
high-titer stocks, the virus was purified, and the genomic DNA
was isolated (3). In order to produce a DNA template for the in vitro transcription of HCoV-vec-1 RNA, the HCoV-vec-1 DNA was
digested with ClaI, deproteinized by phenol extraction, and ethanol precipitated. Approximately 5 to 10 µg of this DNA was then
used to in vitro transcribe HCoV-vec-1 RNA in the presence of
m7G(5')ppp(5')G (ratio of 1:1 with GTP) by using a bacteriophage T7
polymerase-based system according to the supplier's instructions (RiboMax; Promega, Mannheim, Germany). The reaction was done for 2.5 h at 25°C followed by DNase I treatment and RNA
precipitation. As is shown in Fig 3a,
this protocol gave both a reasonable amount (approximately 50 µg per
reaction) and high proportion of full-length (i.e., 22.3 kb) RNA. When
this RNA was transfected into BHK-21 cells by electroporation
(3), a small percentage of cells (~0.1%) displayed
strong fluorescence, indicative of GFP expression (Fig. 3b).
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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V.T. and J.H. contributed equally to this work.
We thank V. ter Meulen for support.
This work was supported by the German Research Council (DFG).
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of Würzburg, 97078 Würzburg, Germany. Phone: 49 931 201 3966. Fax: 49 931 201 3934. E-mail: v.thiel{at}mail.uni-wuerzburg.de.
Present address: SWITCH-Biotech AG, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
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