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 Barr, J. N.
Right arrow Articles by Wertz, G. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Barr, J. N.
Right arrow Articles by Wertz, G. W.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, August 2001, p. 6901-6913, Vol. 75, No. 15
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.15.6901-6913.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Polymerase Slippage at Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Gene Junctions To Generate Poly(A) Is Regulated by the Upstream 3'-AUAC-5' Tetranucleotide: Implications for the Mechanism of Transcription Termination

John N. Barr and Gail W. Wertz*

Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294

Received 20 March 2001/Accepted 8 May 2001

Termination of mRNA synthesis in vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), the prototypic rhabdovirus, is controlled by a 13-nucleotide gene end sequence which comprises the conserved tetranucleotide 3'-AUAC-5', the U7 tract and the intergenic dinucleotide. mRNAs terminated at this sequence possess 100- to 300-nucleotide-long 3' poly(A) tails which are thought to result from polymerase slippage (reiterative transcription) by the VSV polymerase on the U7 tract. Previously we determined that in addition to the AUAC tetranucleotide, the U7 tract was an essential signal in the termination process. Shortening or interrupting the U7 tract abolished termination. These altered U tracts also prevented the polymerase from performing reiterative transcription necessary for generation of the mRNA poly(A) tail and thus established seven residues as the minimum length of U tract that allowed reiterative transcription to occur. In this study we investigated whether sequences other than the essential U7 tract are involved in controlling polymerase slippage. We investigated whether the AUAC tetranucleotide affected the process of reiterative transcription by analyzing the nucleotide sequence of RNAs transcribed from altered subgenomic templates and infectious VSV variants. The tetranucleotide was found to regulate reiterative transcription on the U7 tract. The extent of polymerase slippage was governed not by specific tetranucleotide sequences but rather by nucleotide composition such that slippage occurred when the tetranucleotide was composed of A or U residues but not when it was composed of G or C residues. This suggested that polymerase slippage was controlled, at least in part, by the strength of base pairing between the template and nascent strands. Further data presented here indicate that the tetranucleotide contains both a signal that directs the VSV polymerase to slip on the downstream U7 tract and also a signal that directs a slipping polymerase to terminate mRNA synthesis.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, BBRB 17/373, 845 19th St. South, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-2170. Phone: (205) 934 0877. Fax: (205) 934 1636. E-mail: gail_wertz{at}microbio.uab.edu.

Journal of Virology, August 2001, p. 6901-6913, Vol. 75, No. 15
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.15.6901-6913.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Rahmeh, A. A., Li, J., Kranzusch, P. J., Whelan, S. P. J. (2009). Ribose 2'-O Methylation of the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus mRNA Cap Precedes and Facilitates Subsequent Guanine-N-7 Methylation by the Large Polymerase Protein. J. Virol. 83: 11043-11050 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Li, J., Rahmeh, A., Brusic, V., Whelan, S. P. J. (2009). Opposing Effects of Inhibiting Cap Addition and Cap Methylation on Polyadenylation during Vesicular Stomatitis Virus mRNA Synthesis. J. Virol. 83: 1930-1940 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Galloway, S. E., Wertz, G. W. (2008). S-Adenosyl Homocysteine-Induced Hyperpolyadenylation of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus mRNA Requires the Methyltransferase Activity of L Protein. J. Virol. 82: 12280-12290 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Turnbough, C. L. Jr., Switzer, R. L. (2008). Regulation of Pyrimidine Biosynthetic Gene Expression in Bacteria: Repression without Repressors. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 72: 266-300 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wang, J. T., McElvain, L. E., Whelan, S. P. J. (2007). Vesicular Stomatitis Virus mRNA Capping Machinery Requires Specific cis-Acting Signals in the RNA. J. Virol. 81: 11499-11506 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Li, J., Chorba, J. S., Whelan, S. P. J. (2007). Vesicular Stomatitis Viruses Resistant to the Methylase Inhibitor Sinefungin Upregulate RNA Synthesis and Reveal Mutations That Affect mRNA Cap Methylation. J. Virol. 81: 4104-4115 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wierzchoslawski, R., Bujarski, J. J. (2006). Efficient In Vitro System of Homologous Recombination in Brome Mosaic Bromovirus.. J. Virol. 80: 6182-6187 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Barr, J. N., Rodgers, J. W., Wertz, G. W. (2006). Identification of the Bunyamwera bunyavirus transcription termination signal. J. Gen. Virol. 87: 189-198 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wierzchoslawski, R., Dzianott, A., Bujarski, J. (2004). Dissecting the Requirement for Subgenomic Promoter Sequences by RNA Recombination of Brome Mosaic Virus In Vivo: Evidence for Functional Separation of Transcription and Recombination. J. Virol. 78: 8552-8564 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Meng, Q., Turnbough, C. L. Jr., Switzer, R. L. (2004). Attenuation control of pyrG expression in Bacillus subtilis is mediated by CTP-sensitive reiterative transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101: 10943-10948 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Cartee, T. L., Megaw, A. G., Oomens, A. G. P., Wertz, G. W. (2003). Identification of a Single Amino Acid Change in the Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus L Protein That Affects Transcriptional Termination. J. Virol. 77: 7352-7360 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wierzchoslawski, R., Dzianott, A., Kunimalayan, S., Bujarski, J. J. (2003). A Transcriptionally Active Subgenomic Promoter Supports Homologous Crossovers in a Plus-Strand RNA Virus. J. Virol. 77: 6769-6776 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Khan, A. H., Morita, K., Parquet, M. d. C., Hasebe, F., Mathenge, E. G. M., Igarashi, A. (2002). Complete nucleotide sequence of chikungunya virus and evidence for an internal polyadenylation site. J. Gen. Virol. 83: 3075-3084 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Neumann, G., Whitt, M. A., Kawaoka, Y. (2002). A decade after the generation of a negative-sense RNA virus from cloned cDNA - what have we learned?. J. Gen. Virol. 83: 2635-2662 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Whelan, S. P. J., Wertz, G. W. (2002). Transcription and replication initiate at separate sites on the vesicular stomatitis virus genome. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99: 9178-9183 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wertz, G. W., Moudy, R., Ball, L. A. (2002). Adding Genes to the RNA Genome of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus: Positional Effects on Stability of Expression. J. Virol. 76: 7642-7650 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Le Mercier, P., Garcin, D., Hausmann, S., Kolakofsky, D. (2002). Ambisense Sendai Viruses Are Inherently Unstable but Are Useful To Study Viral RNA Synthesis. J. Virol. 76: 5492-5502 [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»