Rezelj, VV, Mottram, TJ orcid.org/0000-0001-9013-3664, Hughes, J et al. (3 more authors) (2019) M segment-based minigenomes and virus-like particle assays as an approach to assess the potential of tick-borne Phlebovirus genome reassortment. Journal of Virology, 93 (6). e02068-18. ISSN 0022-538X
Abstract
Bunyaviruses have a tripartite negative-sense RNA genome. Due to the segmented nature of these viruses, if two closely related viruses co-infect the same host or vector cell, it is possible that RNA segments from either of the two parental viruses are incorporated into progeny virions to give reassortant viruses. Little is known about the ability of tick-borne phleboviruses to reassort. The present study describes the development of minigenome assays for the tick-borne viruses Uukuniemi phlebovirus (UUKV) and Heartland phlebovirus (HRTV). We used these minigenome assays in conjunction with the existing minigenome system of SFTS phlebovirus (SFTSV) to assess the ability of viral N and L proteins to recognize, transcribe and replicate the M segment-based minigenome of a heterologous virus. The highest minigenome activity was detected with the M segment-based minigenome of cognate viruses. However, our findings indicate that several combinations utilizing N and L proteins of heterologous viruses resulted in M segment minigenome activity. This suggests that the M segment untranslated regions (UTRs) are recognised as a functional promoter of transcription and replication by the N and L proteins of related viruses. Further, virus-like particle assays demonstrated that HRTV glycoproteins can package UUKV and SFTSV S and L segment-based minigenomes. Taken together, these results suggest that co-infection of these viruses could lead to the generation of viable reassortant progeny. Thus, the tools developed herein could aid in understanding the role of genome reassortment in the evolution of these emerging pathogens under an experimental setting.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Rezelj et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Leeds) > Molecular Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jan 2019 16:18 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Society for Microbiology |
Identification Number: | 10.1128/JVI.02068-18 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:140492 |