Murine gammaherpesvirus 68 encodes tRNA-like sequences which are expressed during latency

Rory J. Bowden, J. Pedro Simas, Adam J. Davis, Stacey Efstathiou*

*Autor correspondente para este trabalho

Resultado de pesquisarevisão de pares

127 Citações (Scopus)

Resumo

Murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV-68) is a virus of wild rodents and is a convenient small animal model for studies of gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis. We have sequenced 6162 bp at the left end of the MHV-68 genome and identified two unique open reading frames (ORFs) (ORF2 and ORF3) and an ORF (ORF-1) which displays similarity to poxvirus members of the serpin family. Interspersed with the ORFs is a family of eight novel wRNA-like sequences sharing tRNA-like predicted secondary structures and RNA polymerase III promoter elements. These sequences are expressed to high levels during lytic infection and are processed into mature tRNAs with post-transcriptionally added 3' CCA termini, indicating their recognition as tRNAs by cellular machinery. Acidic Northern analysis of four tRNAs tested has demonstrated that they are not aminoacylated by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases present in the infected cell. Thus, it is currently unclear what biological function these uncharged viral tRNA-like sequences may fulfil. In situ hybridization analysis has shown that in addition to being expressed within productively infected tissues during acute stages of infection, the tRNA-like sequences are abundantly expressed within splenic germinal centres of latently infected mice. Therefore, the MHV-68 viral tRNAs represent a marker for latent infection and constitute the first report of tRNA-like sequences encoded by a virus of eukaryotes.
Idioma originalEnglish
Páginas (de-até)1675-1687
Número de páginas13
RevistaJournal of General Virology
Volume78
Número de emissão7
DOIs
Estado da publicaçãoPublicado - 1 jul. 1997
Publicado externamenteSim

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