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Journal of Virology, January 2005, p. 1017-1026, Vol. 79, No. 2
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.79.2.1017-1026.2005

In Vitro and In Vivo Mutational Analysis of the 3'-Terminal Regions of Hepatitis E Virus Genomes and Replicons

Judith Graff,^1* Hanh Nguyen,¹ Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua,² Patrick G. Halbur,² Marisa St. Claire,³ Robert H. Purcell,⁴ and Suzanne U. Emerson¹

Molecular Hepatitis,¹ Hepatitis Viruses Sections, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland,⁴ Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa,² Bioqual, Incorporated, Rockville, Maryland³

Received 31 March 2004/ Accepted 5 September 2004

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) replication is not well understood, mainly because the virus does not infect cultured cells efficiently. However, Huh-7 cells transfected with full-length genomes produce open reading frame 2 protein, indicative of genome replication (6). To investigate the role of 3'-terminal sequences in RNA replication, we constructed chimeric full-length genomes with divergent 3'-terminal sequences of genotypes 2 and 3 replacing that of genotype 1 and transfected them into Huh-7 cells. The production of viral proteins by these full-length chimeras was indistinguishable from that of the wild type, suggesting that replication was not impaired. In order to better quantify HEV replication in cell culture, we constructed an HEV replicon with a reporter (luciferase). Luciferase production was cap dependent and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase dependent and increased following transfection of Huh-7 cells. Replicons harboring the 3'-terminal intergenotypic chimera sequences were also assayed for luciferase production. In spite of the large sequence differences among the 3' termini of the viruses, replication of the chimeric replicons was surprisingly similar to that of the parental replicon. However, a single unique nucleotide change within a predicted stem structure at the 3' terminus substantially reduced the efficiency of replication: RNA replication was partially restored by a covariant mutation. Similar patterns of replication were obtained when full-length genomes were inoculated into rhesus macaques, suggesting that the in vitro system could be used to predict the effect of 3'-terminal mutations in vivo. Incorporation of the 3'-terminal sequences of the swine strain of HEV into the genotype 1 human strain did not enable the human strain to infect swine.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Molecular Hepatitis Section, LID, NIAID, National Institutes of Health, Building 50, Room 6535, 50 South Dr., MSC 8009, Bethesda, MD 20892-8009. Phone: (301) 504-2313. Fax: (301) 402-0524. E-mail: jgraff{at}niaid.nih.gov.

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Journal of Virology, January 2005, p. 1017-1026, Vol. 79, No. 2
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.79.2.1017-1026.2005

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