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Journal of Virology, July 2003, p. 8141-8146, Vol. 77, No. 14
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.14.8141-8146.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Biphasic DNA Synthesis in Spumaviruses
Olivier Delelis,1 Ali Saïb,2 and Pierre Sonigo1*
Département des Maladies Infectieuses, Institut Cochin, INSERM U 567 et CNRS UMR 8104, 75014 Paris,1
CNRS UPR 9051, Hôpital Saint-Louis, 75010 Paris, France2
Received 6 December 2002/
Accepted 15 April 2003

ABSTRACT
Spumaviruses are complex retroviruses whose replication cycle
resembles that of hepadnaviruses, especially by a late-occurring
reverse transcription step. The possible existence of an early
reverse transcription as observed in other retroviruses was
not documented. Using real-time quantitative PCR, we addressed
directly the kinetics of DNA synthesis during spumavirus infection.
An early phase of viral DNA synthesis developed until 3 h postinfection,
followed by a second phase, culminating 10 h postinfection.
Both phases were abolished by the reverse transcriptase inhibitor
3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine. Similar to other retroviruses, circular
forms of viral DNA harboring two long terminal repeats were
mainly found in the nucleus of infected cells. Interestingly,
a fraction of these circular forms were detected in the cytoplasm
and in extracellular virions, a feature shared with hepadnaviruses.
Combined with packaging of both viral DNA and RNA genomes in
virions, early and late reverse transcription might allow spumavirus
to maximize its genome replication.

TEXT
Human foamy virus (HFV) is the prototype of the
Spumavirus genus
of retroviruses. First isolated from a human cell line, it was
reported later to originate from chimpanzees (
9). Interestingly,
spumaviruses differ from other retroviruses in many features
(
14). The most divergent aspect concerns the timing of reverse
transcription (RT). Classically, the retrovirus replication
cycle is divided into two phases. The early phase comprises
the steps of entry into the cell cytoplasm, synthesis of cDNA
by RT of the virion-associated RNA, nuclear transport, and integration
of the viral cDNA into the host cell genome. The late phase
covers viral gene expression, synthesis and processing of viral
proteins, and assembly and release of virions. Although RT typically
occurs during the early phase for retroviruses, it was proposed
elsewhere that spumavirus cDNA was produced by RT that occurred
late in the viral cycle, i.e., from newly transcribed viral
RNAs, before or during virus budding (
16,
25,
27). Indeed, treatment
of cells with the RT inhibitor 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT)
during the entry step was reported previously to have only a
small effect on HFV replication, whereas treatment of already
infected cells abolished infectivity (
16,
27). Late RT provided
an explanation for the massive accumulation of genomic DNA in
the infected cellby exploiting the abundance of new transcriptsand
the incorporation of infectious viral DNA into up to 20% of
extracellular virions (
25). Such features resemble those of
hepadnaviruses, typified by the hepatitis B virus, which exploits
a late RT step and packages DNA in virions (
13). In contrast,
human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) particles containing
full-length DNA were estimated to represent only 0.001% of extracellular
virions (
24). The possible existence and quantitative importance
of a conventional early RT step were not documented in spumaviruses.
In the infected cell, spumaviruses accumulate multiple copies of unintegrated linear double-stranded DNA harboring a gap in the positive strand (2, 12). In most retroviruses, circular DNAs, harboring one or two long terminal repeats (LTRs), are thought to form in the nucleus, either from homologous recombination between the two LTRs or from intramolecular ligation (3, 5, 10, 18, 19, 22, 23). Accordingly, circular DNAs are usually considered a marker of nuclear import (1). However, their function during retrovirus replication, if any, remains elusive. In contrast, in hepadnaviruses, circular DNAs are essential for infectivity (21). In the case of HFV, the presence of viral circular DNAs carrying two contiguous LTRs has been reported elsewhere but their abundance was lower than that of other retroviruses (20). In addition, their subcellular distribution, as well as the kinetics of their production, remains unknown.
First, we addressed directly the kinetics of HFV DNA synthesis starting immediately after infection using a sensitive and quantitative real-time PCR assay. To quantify total viral DNA (integrated, unintegrated, linear, or circular), primers in the env (SpuInF [5'-GGA CCT GTA ATA GAC TGG AA-3'] and SpuR [5'-ATT TGC AGG TCT AAT ACT CTC C-3']) and in the gag (GAG1 [5'-CAG GAA GTA ATG TTG AAG AA-3'] and GAG2 [5'-TCT CTC AAT TTG TCC CCA CC-3']) genes were used. The pHSRV13 plasmid harboring the entire HFV genome (15) was used as a standard for calibration of total viral DNA quantification. In the case of two-LTR circles, the following primers, encompassing the LTR-LTR junction, were used: SpA (5'-TAG TAT AAT CAT TTC CGC TTT CG-3') and SpF (5'-CAA TAA ACC GAC TTG ATT CGA G-3'). The pR/U3 plasmid, obtained by cloning this 413-bp PCR product in a Bluescript vector (Stratagene cloning kit), was used as a standard for calibration of two-LTR circle quantification. All amplifications were performed in a 20-µl reaction volume containing 1x Light Cycler Fast Start DNA Syber Green technique mixture (Roche Diagnostics), 3.5 mM MgCl2, and 500 nM (each) primer.
The kinetics of viral DNA synthesis was studied in BHK-21 cells infected with HFV at different multiplicities of infection (MOIs) (Fig. 1). At an MOI of 0.2, viral DNA was detected as soon as 1.5 h postinfection, while two-LTR circles were initially detected at 3 h (Fig. 1A and B). At this MOI, viral DNA can be detected at the initial time point (t = 0), likely reflecting incoming viral DNA present in the supernatant (data not shown). Strikingly, the number of viral DNA copies increased rapidly as early as 1.5 h postinfection independently of the MOI used and stabilized around 5 h postinfection. A second phase of active viral DNA accumulation was observed, culminating around 10 h postinfection. While the biphasic kinetics was reproductively observed in different experiments, the relative importance of the two phases in DNA production was shown to depend on conditions of infection, especially MOI (Fig. 1A). The biphasic aspect of the curve is less significant for two-LTR circles (Fig. 1B). As shown in Fig. 1C, from 5 h postinfection, the percentage of two-LTR circles over total viral DNA increased to reach a peak at 9.5 h and decreased later on. Beyond 24 h, a progressive increase of linear and circular DNA was observed, probably reflecting multiple cycles of infection (Fig. 1A and B). Similar results were obtained using primers in the gag gene, confirming that total viral DNA was constituted by complete genomes (Fig. 1D and E). These observations were confirmed in human U373-MG cells (data not shown).
Early detection of viral DNA and its accumulation could result
either from an early synthesis or from delayed entry of viral
DNA genomes packaged into incoming virions. To address this
point, BHK-21 cells were infected with HFV at an MOI of 0.2,
in the presence or absence of the reverse transcriptase inhibitor
AZT. At the concentration used (100 µM), AZT was previously
shown to inhibit HFV RT without any cytotoxic effect (
27). Whereas
viral DNA was detected in infected BHK-21 cells in the absence
of AZT, no viral DNA accumulation was observed in cells treated
with this compound from the time of infection (Fig.
2A and B).
Accordingly, treatment with AZT prevented viral production by
100- to 1,000-fold, at 48 and 72 h postinfection, respectively,
as revealed by X-Gal (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-ß-
D-galactopyranoside)
staining of ß-galactosidase indicator FAB cells (
26)
infected at the same MOI (Fig.
2C). Pretreatment with AZT before
infection, or adding this drug in the medium during infection,
prevented viral DNA synthesis, indicating de novo synthesis
rather than delayed entry of DNA contained in virions. Previous
reports have shown that early treatment has little or no effect
on HFV replication, depending on cell type and culture conditions
(
16,
27), in agreement with our observation that the early production
step accounted only for 25% of viral DNA production under our
highest-MOI conditions (Fig.
1A). This supports the interpretation
that the observed phases of DNA production could correspond
to the early and late RT steps. However, other hypotheses might
fit these observations. For example, AZT inhibition immediately
after infection might suggest the existence of a DNA production
from genomic RNA (classical "early" RT) and/or RNA transcribed
rapidly from viral DNA genomes either integrated or not, and
immediately reverse transcribed (rapid "late" RT). In this latter
case, the biphasic aspect of the curves might result from an
overlap of the two processes, delay between first- and second-strand
synthesis, or the overall dynamics of the involved reactions.
In this context, the key question is the time required to produce
new RNA transcripts after entry of viral DNA genomes. This delay
is unlikely to be less than a few hours, suggesting that at
least a part of the early production represents classical early
RT from RNA genomes. In a second series of experiments, AZT
was added 8 h postinfection. Under these conditions, an initial
phase of viral DNA synthesis was observed which decreased 2
h following addition of AZT (Fig.
3A and B). Note that the percentage
of two-LTR circles was more significant if AZT was maintained
in the medium (Fig.
3C). This observation is consistent with
a higher stability of two-LTR circles than of linear DNA, a
situation recently reported for HIV-1 infection in which two-LTR
circles were shown to be intrinsically stable, calling into
question their use as markers of recent infection (
4,
17).
In contrast to what has been reported previously for HIV-1 (
4,
17), circular viral DNAs cannot be detected by Southern blotting
in HFV-infected cells (data not shown). Real-time quantitative
PCR allowed us to detect them and to characterize both their
subcellular distribution and their ratio to total viral DNA.
BHK-21 cells were infected with HFV at an MOI of 0.06, washed
with phosphate-buffered saline, and lysed in a hypotonic buffer
(10 mM Tris, pH 7.5; 10 mM NaCl; 0.15 mM spermine; 0.5 mM spermidine;
1 mM EDTA; 100 µg of digitonin per ml) for 5 min on ice.
Pellets, constituting the nuclear fraction, were obtained after
an initial centrifugation for 5 min at 1,500 rpm (Beckman),
whereas the remaining supernatant was centrifuged a second time
for 5 min at 13,000 rpm, leading to the cytoplasmic fraction.
Real-time quantitative PCR detected two-LTR circles mainly in
the nucleus of infected cells, similar to what has been reported
previously for HIV-1 (
7,
11,
17). However, although 97% of viral
DNA was located in the nucleus, linear viral DNA, and to a lesser
extent two-LTR forms, was also detected within the cytoplasm
of infected cells (Fig.
4). Amplification of the nuclear glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate
dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene was used to quantify the number of
extracted cells, with the following primers: B152 (5'-TCC CTC
AAG ATT GTC AGC AA-3') and B153 (5'-AGA TCC ACA ACG GAT ACA
TT-3'). GAPDH sequences detected in the cytoplasm represented
0.1% of those detected in the nucleus; on the other hand, two-LTR
circles detected in the cytoplasm represented 3% of total circular
viral genomes (Fig.
4C). Taken together, these observations
strongly suggest that detection of cytoplasmic two-LTR circles
does not result from nuclear contamination. Two hypotheses might
explain the presence of two-LTR circles in the cytoplasm. First,
if circles are formed in the nucleus from imported linear viral
cDNA, as usually considered, they have to be subsequently exported
toward the cytoplasm. Alternatively, they might form in the
cytoplasm and be imported into the nucleus where they accumulate.
In this scenario, the larger amount of two-LTR circles detected
in the nucleus might reflect a higher stability rather than
production of circular forms in this compartment.
Finally, in reference to hepadnaviruses, we sought to determine
whether circular forms were incorporated into virions. Cell-free
supernatant from acutely infected BHK-21 cells was mixed with
NTE buffer (100 mM NaCl, 10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.4], 1 mM EDTA),
placed on a 20% sucrose cushion, and centrifuged at 25,000 rpm
for 3 h at 4°C. Pellets were resuspended in phosphate-buffered
saline, and aliquots were treated or not with 450 U of DNase
I (GibcoBRL) for 5 h at 37°C as already reported (
25) to
minimize contamination with nonpackaged viral and cellular DNA
from infected cells. The efficiency of DNase I treatment was
checked in aliquots contaminated with 25,000 copies of human
DNA by comparing the copy number of the ß-globin gene
between samples treated with DNase I and those not so treated,
with commercially available materials (control kit DNA; Roche
Diagnostics).
Given these stringent controls for cellular DNA contamination and DNase I efficacy, viral DNA was still detected in virions (Fig. 4B), in agreement with previous studies (25, 27). Interestingly, two-LTR circles were also detected in extracellular virions, in which they represented 0.1% of total viral DNA. This ratio did not significantly vary over time during infection (Fig. 4C). Finally, the ratio of two-LTR circles to total viral DNA was comparable in all compartments, cytoplasm, nucleus, and virions (from 0.1 to 1.2%). As we used PCR primers amplifying the env and gag regions, detection of partial RT products is unlikely, as already reported (24). Given that spumavirus capsids assemble within the cytoplasm (6) and that virus budding mainly occurs from intracellular membranes (8), it is not surprising to observe the presence of linear viral DNA and circular forms in extracellular virions.
In conclusion, our data demonstrate the existence of an early RT step during foamy virus infection as classically observed in other retroviruses.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Olfert Landt (TIB MOLBIOL) for technical assistance
with the design of primers. We thank Marc Alizon, Caroline Petit,
and Audrey Brussel for helpful discussions.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Département des Maladies Infectieuses, Institut Cochin, INSERM U 567 et CNRS UMR 8104, 22 rue Méchain, 75014 Paris, France. Phone: 33 1 40 51 64 13. Fax: 33 1 40 51 64 30. E-mail:
sonigo{at}cochin.inserm.fr.


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Journal of Virology, July 2003, p. 8141-8146, Vol. 77, No. 14
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.14.8141-8146.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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