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Journal of Virology, August 2006, p. 8274-8278, Vol. 80, No. 16
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00476-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology,1 Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, Texas 77555-10192
Received 7 March 2006/ Accepted 30 May 2006
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The RVFV M segment encodes four proteins, two major envelope glycoproteins, Gn (or G2) and Gc (or G1), which most probably bind to an as-yet-unknown viral receptor molecule to initiate virus infection, and two minor proteins, the 14-kDa nonstructural NSm protein (7) and the 78-kDa protein, which is reported to be a structural protein (15). The biological functions of the NSm and 78-kDa proteins are totally unknown, but they probably do not have a role in viral RNA synthesis; RVFV minigenome RNA replication and transcription occur efficiently in the absence of expression of the NSm, 78-kDa, and Gn and Gc proteins (2). The region upstream from the Gn gene (pre-Gn region) contains five in-frame AUG codons (Fig. 1), and it appears that each of these five AUGs serves as an initiation codon of different proteins. The first and second AUGs serve as initiation codons for the 78-kDa and NSm proteins, respectively, while the third, fourth, and fifth AUGs initiate the Gn-Gc fusion protein (6, 13, 16). The 78-kDa protein consists of pre-Gn and Gn regions. NSm contains the region that starts from the second AUG to the end of the pre-Gn region. A precursor of the Gn-Gc fusion protein is translated from the third to the fifth AUG, and then it undergoes protein processing to generate Gn and Gc proteins. Gn and Gc protein synthesis still occurs in the absence of the first and second AUGs (7, 16).
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FIG. 1. Schematic representation of the MP-12 antigenomic-sense M segment and sequences of the pre-Gn region sections. Five in-frame translation initiation codons in the pre-Gn region are illustrated by five short vertical lines. Regions that encode the NSm and 78-kDa proteins are represented by two boxes at the top of the diagram. The sequences around the first and second AUGs in the pre-Gn region are shown at the bottom. Nucleotide substitutions in arMP-12-delNSm-1 and arMP-12-delNSm-2 at the second AUG were, respectively, GUG and GCC. An EcoRI sequence was introduced into the first AUG in arMP-12-del78. arMP-12-delNSm/78 had mutations at both the first and second AUGs as indicated.
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FIG. 2. Plaque phenotype and protein expression of mutant viruses. (A) Vero E6 cells were infected with arMP-12 and its mutant viruses as indicated. Plaques were stained with crystal violet at 3 days p.i. (B) Vero E6 cells were mock infected (Mock) or independently infected with the indicated viruses at an MOI of 1, and cell extracts were prepared using lysis buffer (1% Triton X-100, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate [SDS] in phosphate-buffered saline) at 24 h p.i. Viral proteins were separated by 12% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Western blot analysis was performed using anti-NSm antibody to demonstrate NSm and 78-kDa proteins. The asterisk represents a protein of unknown origin, which was recognized by anti-NSm antibody. (C) Vero E6 cells were mock infected (Mock) or infected with the indicated viruses at an MOI of 1, and the cells were labeled with 100 µCi/ml of Tran35S-label for 30 min at 8 h p.i. MP-12-specific N, Gn, and Gc proteins were immunoprecipitated using anti-N polyclonal antibody (anti-N), anti-Gn monoclonal antibody (anti-Gn), and anti-Gc monoclonal antibody (anti-Gc), respectively. Anti-Gn antibody also efficiently precipitated the 78-kDa protein (square dots). Anti-RVFV antibody (anti-RVFV) (4) was used to immunoprecipitate Gn, Gc, and N proteins of arMP-12 and its mutant viruses. Normal mouse serum (Normal serum) was used as a control. Precipitated proteins were analyzed by 10% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. (D) Vero E6 cells were mock infected (Mock) or independently infected with indicated viruses at an MOI of 1, and cell extracts were prepared at 8 h p.i. Western blot analysis was performed using anti-Gn monoclonal antibody, anti-Gc monoclonal antibody, and antiactin antibody to detect Gn protein, Gc protein, and actin, respectively.
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We examined the effects of the introduced mutations on the accumulation of Gn and Gc proteins. Vero E6 cells were mock infected or independently infected with MP-12 and the rescued viruses at an MOI of 1. At 8 h p.i., cells were radiolabeled with 100 µCi/ml of Tran35S-label (MP Biomedical, Inc., Irvine, CA) for 30 min. Cells were prepared with lysis buffer, and the intracellular RVFV-specific proteins were immunoprecipitated with anti-Gn (R1-4D4) monoclonal antibody (8), anti-Gc (R1-5G2) monoclonal antibody (obtained from George Ludwig, USAMRIID, Ft. Detrick, Frederick, MD), anti-RVFV antibody (4), or anti-N rabbit polyclonal antibody. Anti-N rabbit polyclonal antibody was prepared by injecting a rabbit with GST-N fusion protein (the entire N protein was fused with the C terminus of GST protein) followed by affinity purification of the serum by the GST-N fusion protein. Intracellular accumulations of N protein and the mixture of Gn and Gc proteins, both of which migrated in the gel, were similar among the cells that were infected with arMP-12 and all of the mutant viruses (Fig. 2C). Anti-Gn monoclonal antibody efficiently immunoprecipitated the 78-kDa protein, which migrated more slowly than did the Gn protein, from the extracts of the MP-12-infected cells (Fig. 2C); however, anti-RVFV antibody did not precipitate this protein efficiently. Western blot analysis using anti-Gn and anti-Gc monoclonal antibodies clearly demonstrated that arMP-12 and its mutant viruses accumulated similar amounts of Gn and Gc proteins in infected cells (Fig. 2D).
Analysis of one-step virus growth kinetics of the rescued viruses in interferon-incompetent Vero cells (Fig. 3A), Aedes albopictus C6/36 mosquito cells (Fig. 3B), and interferon-competent human lung MRC5 fibroblasts (Fig. 3C), after infection with virus at an MOI of 1, revealed that all of the viruses released infectious viruses into the culture fluid with similar kinetics; a low titer of arMP-12-del78 at 8 h p.i. was not reproducible. Also, all rescued viruses produced infectious viruses with similar kinetics after infection of the MRC5 cells at an MOI of 0.01 (Fig. 3D).
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FIG. 3. Growth curves of arMP-12 and its mutant viruses. Vero (A), C6/36 (B), and MRC5 (C and D) cells were infected with arMP-12 and mutant viruses at an MOI of 1 (A, B, and C) or 0.01 (D), and the culture supernatants were collected at various times p.i. Virus titers were determined by plaque assay of Vero E6 cells.
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A competition-propagation assay was performed to compare the relative fitnesses of arMP-12 and arMP-12-delNSm/78. Five different mixtures of arMP-12 and arMP-12-delNSm/78 were prepared at ratios of 1 to 100, 1 to 50, 1 to 20, 1 to 1, or 100 to 1 and independently inoculated into Vero E6 cells at an MOI of 0.1. At 48 h p.i., released-virus samples were collected and inoculated into Vero E6 cells at an MOI of 0.1. This method of virus passage was repeated five times. As controls, arMP-12 and arMP-12-delNSm/78 were independently passaged using the same method. If arMP-12 expressing NSm and 78-kDa protein is more fit than arMP-12-delNSm/78 lacking both proteins, then it should become the major virus population during serial passages. To estimate the abundance of arMP-12 and arMP-12-delNSm/78 in the passaged samples, intracellular RNAs were extracted from coinfected Vero E6 cells, cells infected with passage-level-three sample, and cells infected with passage-level-five sample. Then, the 159-bp-long reverse transcription-PCR product corresponding to the 5' end of antigenomic-sense M segment RNA was obtained using primers M18F and M159R (Fig. 4A). The PCR products were digested with EcoRI and then analyzed using 2% agarose gel electrophoresis (Fig. 4B). We expected that the PCR product from arMP-12-delNSm/78, but not from arMP-12, would undergo EcoRI digestion, resulting in the generation of 140-bp and 19-bp fragments, because the 5' end of antigenomic-sense M segment RNA of arMP-12-delNSm/78 had an EcoRI site (Fig. 4A). Consistent with this expectation, EcoRI digestion of the PCR product from the pPro-T7-avM(+)-EcoRI plasmid encoding the arMP-12-delNSm/78 M segment RNA and that from arMP-12-delNSm/78-infected cells both yielded the 140-bp fragment, while the 159-bp-long PCR product from plasmid pPro-T7-avM(+) and that from the arMP-12-infected cells were resistant to the EcoRI digestion (Fig. 4B). Analysis of the coinfected samples showed that the ratio of the 159-bp PCR product amount to the 140-bp PCR fragment amount roughly correlated to that of input arMP-12 to input arMP-12-delNSm/78 (Fig. 4B) and that there was a trend for this ratio to increase after passage. This trend was most obvious in the sample that used the initial two-virus mixture at a ratio of 1:1; the abundance of the arMP-12-delNSm/78-derived PCR fragment quickly decreased after passage (Fig. 4B). These data suggest that there was a slight loss of fitness for growth in cell culture for arMP-12-delNSm/78 compared to that for intact arMP-12.
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FIG. 4. Competition-propagation assay. (A) Shown at the top are the structures of the 5' end of the antigenomic-sense M segment of arMP-12 and that of the arMP-12-delNSm/78 and binding sites of two primers, M18F (5'-ACACAAAGACGGTGCATT-3') and M159R (5'-GTGAATCCCAAGCTCCTTCAAT-3'). EcoRI digestion of the arMP-12-delNSm/78-derived PCR product, but not of the arMP-12-derived PCR product, generated 140- and 19-bp-long PCR fragments (bottom). (B) A competition-propagation assay was performed as described in the text. Vero E6 cells were mock infected (Mock), independently infected with arMP-12 (arMP-12) or arMP-12-delNSm/78 (delNSm/78), or coinfected with arMP-12 and arMP-12-delNSm/78 at the indicated ratio (P0), with virus samples passaged three times (P3) or five times (P5). For extraction of intracellular RNAs, viruses were infected at an MOI of 1, while virus passage was performed at an MOI of 0.1. Intracellular RNA was extracted at 8 h p.i. by using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen). After DNase I digestion of the samples, cDNA was synthesized using random hexamers and superscript II reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen) at 42°C for 1 h. The 5' end of the antigenomic-sense M segment was amplified from these cDNAs and plasmids pPro-T7-avM(+) [pT7-avM(+)] and pPro-T7-avM(+)-EcoRI [pT7-avM(+)-EcoRI] with primer set M18F/M159R and an Expand high-fidelity PCR system (Roche Applied Science). PCR was performed at 95°C for 3 min, followed by 30 cycles of 95°C for 40 s, 55°C for 1 min, and 72°C for 30 s. The PCR products were digested with EcoRI, and the samples were analyzed by 2% agarose gel electrophoresis.
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A recent study of naturally occurring mutant viruses of Maguari virus (MAGV), genus Orthobunyavirus, in which NSm protein is encoded between the Gn and Gc proteins, showed that an intact NSm protein is not required for the replication of MAGV in cell culture (11). RVFV NSm and MAGV NSm are 115 and 174 amino acids long, respectively, and share 14.8% amino acid sequence identity. Whether RVFV NSm protein and MAGV NSm protein share the same biological functions is unclear.
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