Spontaneous and engineered deletions in the 3' noncoding region of tick-borne encephalitis virus: construction of highly attenuated mutants of a flavivirus.

ABSTRACT: The flavivirus genome is a positive-strand RNA molecule containing a single long open reading frame flanked by noncoding regions (NCR) that mediate crucial processes of the viral life cycle. The 3' NCR of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus can be divided into a variable region that is highly heterogeneous in length among strains of TBE virus and in certain cases includes an internal poly(A) tract and a 3'-terminal conserved core element that is believed to fold as a whole into a well-defined secondary structure. We have now investigated the genetic stability of the TBE virus 3' NCR and its influence on viral growth properties and virulence. We observed spontaneous deletions in the variable region during growth of TBE virus in cell culture and in mice. These deletions varied in size and lo

SUBMITTER: Mandl CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC109508 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature