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Journal of Virology, October 2008, p. 9765-9769, Vol. 82, No. 19
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01051-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Virology and Parasitology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi 470-1192, Japan
Received 19 May 2008/ Accepted 11 July 2008
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18-amino-acids (aa) long, and cardiovirus 2A is about 140-aa long. The conserved amino acids, Asn-Pro-Gly (NPG), at the C termini of the aphtho- and cardiovirus 2A proteins, together with a proline at the N terminus of 2B, are required for the processing at the 2A/2B junction through a mechanism different from a proteolytic reaction (2). It has been reported for Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus, a cardiovirus, that a large deletion within the 2A-coding region does not affect RNA replication significantly (6). Parechovirus 2A, which has no proteolytic activity (12) nor the NPGP motif, shows specific binding activity to both single- and double-stranded forms of the 3' untranslated region (UTR), suggesting its involvement in viral RNA replication (10). Aichi virus (AiV), which is associated with acute gastroenteritis in humans (17), is a member of the genus Kobuvirus of the family Picornaviridae (18). AiV 2A, which is 136-aa long, does not have the protease motif characteristic of enterovirus 2A or the NPGP motif. AiV 2A, as well as parechovirus and avian encephalomyelitis virus 2A, has been reported to be related to a cellular protein, H-rev107, a candidate tumor suppressor protein (3, 13).
First, we investigated whether AiV 2A has a proteolytic activity required for the polyprotein processing. We had previously constructed a plasmid, pMAL-3CDmut, which contains the 3CD-coding region with mutations T6492G and G6493C to abolish the 3C protease activity (9). A Csp45I-PstI fragment (nucleotides [nt] 6480 to 6771) of pMAL-3CDmut was substituted for the corresponding fragment of an Aichi virus replicon, pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm, in which the capsid-coding region was replaced with a firefly luciferase (Luc) gene and a hammerhead ribozyme sequence was inserted upstream of the viral sequence (7, 8), yielding pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Cmut (Fig. 1A). pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm and pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Cmut were subjected to in vitro translation in the presence of L-[35S]methionine and L-[35S]cysteine (Amersham), using a TNT quick coupled transcription/translation system (Promega). After being incubated at 30°C for 90 min, translation products were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and radioactive signals were detected with a BAS2000 bioimaging analyzer (Fujifilm). The predicted molecular mass of the polyprotein is approximately 240 kDa. As shown in Fig. 1B, the polyprotein processing was observed for pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm but not for pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Cmut. This result indicates that in AiV, 3C is the only protease involved in the polyprotein processing and that 2A is not a protease.
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FIG. 1. (A) Schematic diagram of pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm and pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Cmut. The virus sequences were cloned downstream of the T7 promoter. An asterisk indicates mutations (T6492G and G6493C) in the 3C-coding region. (B) In vitro transcription/translation of pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm and pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Cmut in rabbit reticulocyte lysate. The translation products labeled with L-[35S]methionine and L-[35S]cysteine were analyzed by SDS-PAGE, and radioactive signals were detected. The positions of the molecular weight markers are indicated on the left.
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FIG. 2. (A) Organization of pAV-FL, pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm, and pAV-FL-Luc-mut9. pAV-FL is an AiV infectious cDNA clone. pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm is a replicon harboring the Luc gene and a hammerhead ribozyme sequence (shaded box). pAV-FL-Luc-mut9 is a replicon containing the indicated mutations at the 5' end of the genome. The thick lines and open boxes show the UTRs and coding regions, respectively. The thin lines indicate the vector sequence. The virus sequences were cloned downstream of the T7 promoter. Two mutations were introduced into the 2A-coding region of pAV-FL, pAV-FL-Luc-5'rzm, and pAV-FL-Luc-mut9. In the 2Afs mutant, the sequence unrelated to the wild-type 2A sequence is indicated by a filled box. In the NC-AA mutant, an asterisk indicates the position of the mutated amino acids. (B) Replication of the replicon RNAs in Vero cells. Lysates of Vero cells transfected with each RNA were prepared at the indicated time points after transfection, and the Luc activity in each lysate was measured. Error bars represent the standard deviation for triplicate experiments. RLU, relative light units.
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The growth properties of these 2A mutants were examined. First, the abilities of the mutants to generate viable viruses were investigated. One microgram of an in vitro transcript derived from pAV-FL, pAV-FL-2Afs, or pAV-FL-NC-AA was transfected into Vero cells, using a lipofectin reagent (Invitrogen), and the virus titer at 72 h after transfection was determined by plaque assay as described previously (11). AV-FL RNA generated viable viruses at a titer of 105 PFU/ml, whereas the two mutant RNAs produced no plaques (data not shown).
Next, we examined RNA replication of the 2A mutants in Vero cells. Ten micrograms of AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm RNA, AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-2Afs RNA, AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-NC-AA RNA, or AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Dmut RNA was electroporated into Vero cells as described previously (11), and the Luc activities of cell lysates prepared at various times were measured by using a luminometer (Lumat LB9507; Berthold) (Fig. 2B). At 1 h, no difference in the Luc activities between AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm and AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Dmut was found, indicating that at this time point, RNA replication had not been initiated and that the Luc activity at this time represents the translation efficiency of the RNA. AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-NC-AA RNA showed almost the same translation efficiency as AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm RNA. On the other hand, the Luc activity of AV-FL-Luc5'rzm-2Afs RNA at 1 h was approximately 50% lower than those of other RNAs. At 2 h, the Luc activity of AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm RNA was increased, whereas those of AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-2Afs RNA and AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-NC-AA RNA, as well as of AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm-3Dmut RNA, were gradually decreased, showing that the two mutants did not replicate in transfected cells.
Furthermore, translation and negative- and positive-strand syntheses of the mutants were examined by using a cell-free translation/replication system as described previously (8). The translation reaction mixture with a mixture of
70% L-[35S]methionine and
30% L-[35S]cysteine (Amersham) was incubated for 1.5 or 3 h, and then the labeled translation products were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and detected as described above (Fig. 3A and B). Additionally, proteins in the translation reaction mixtures without labeled amino acids were separated by SDS-PAGE, blotted onto a polyvinylidene difluoride membrane, immunodetected with rabbit antiserum raised against recombinant His-tagged 2A expressed in Escherichia coli, and then visualized by chemiluminescence (Fig. 3C). The predicted molecular mass of 2A is 14.4 kDa, and 2A must be found between 2B (17.5 kDa) and 3AB (13.7 kDa) on SDS-PAGE. However, the predicted amino acid sequences of wild-type 2A and 2A with the 2Afs mutation contain no methionine and only one cysteine, and for 2A with the NC-AA mutation, the cysteine was changed to an alanine. Probably because of this, 2A and the 2A mutant proteins could not be detected when labeled with [35S]methionine and [35S]cysteine (Fig. 3A and B). Upon immunoblot analysis (Fig. 3C), wild-type 2A and 2A with the NC-AA mutation were detected (Fig. 3A and B, lanes 1, 2, 5 to 8, 11, and 12), but the processed 2A with the frameshift mutation was not (Fig. 3A and B, lanes 3, 4, 9, and 10).
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FIG. 3. Translation of AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm RNA and its mutant RNAs (A), and AV-FL RNA and its mutant RNAs (B), using Vero cell S10 extracts. For each translation reaction, aliquots collected at 1.5 and 3 h after incubation were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. (C) Immunoblot analysis of in vitro translation products, using anti-2A antiserum. The positions of the molecular weight markers and viral proteins are indicated on the right and left of each panel, respectively. An arrowhead in panel (A) indicates Luc-2A, and asterisks in panel (B) show the protein bands unique to AV-FL-2Afs.
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RNAs transcribed from plasmids harboring the ribozyme sequence were subjected to the cell-free translation/replication reaction to analyze RNA replication (Fig. 4A). RNA synthesized in the cell-free translation/replication reaction was labeled with [
-32P]CTP at 3 to 5 h after the start of the reaction. Then total RNA was extracted and analyzed by nondenaturing agarose gel electrophoresis, and radioactive signals were detected. Negative- and positive-strand syntheses were evaluated as the production of the double-stranded replicative form and single-stranded RNA, respectively. In addition, AV-FL-Luc-mut9 RNA, AV-FL-Luc-mut9-2Afs RNA, and AV-FL-Luc-mut9-NC-AA RNA were analyzed to compare the efficiency of negative-strand synthesis among the RNAs in detail (Fig. 4B). The mutation introduced into mut9 has been shown to abolish positive-strand synthesis without affecting negative-strand synthesis (8). Negative-strand synthesis in the 2Afs mutant and the NC-AA mutant was decreased to 18% and 42% of that in the wild type, respectively (Fig. 4B). On the other hand, positive-strand synthesis in the 2Afs mutant was not detected and that in the NC-AA mutant was markedly reduced (Fig. 4A). Thus, the two mutations affected both negative- and positive-strand synthesis, the defect in positive-strand synthesis being more severe than that in negative-strand synthesis. Since the 2Afs mutation prevented cleavage at the N terminus of 2A (Fig. 3), in addition to the loss of function of 2A caused by the mutation, the decrease in the amount of the properly processed 2A may affect RNA synthesis. On the other hand, the mutation of the NC motif had only a moderate effect on negative-strand synthesis and mainly impaired the function of 2A required for positive-strand synthesis.
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FIG. 4. Negative- and positive-strand synthesis of AV-FL-Luc-5'rzm RNA and its mutant RNAs (A) and AV-FL-Luc-mut9 RNA and its mutant RNAs (B) in the cell-free translation/replication system. The positions of replicative form (RF) and single-strand RNA (ssRNA) are indicated. In panel B, the signal intensities of products are quantitated and expressed as percentages of the product in the wild type.
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Published ahead of print on 23 July 2008. ![]()
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