Recovery of an arenavirus entirely from RNA polymerase I/II-driven cDNA.

ABSTRACT: The prototypic arenavirus lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus has been a primary workhorse of viral immunologists for almost a century, and it has served as an important model for studying basic principles of arenavirus molecular biology. Its negative-stranded bisegmented RNA genome has, however, posed a major obstacle to attempts at manipulating the infectious virus by reverse genetic techniques. Here, we report the recovery of infectious lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (the immunosuppressive strain clone 13) entirely from cDNA. Intracellular transcription of the short and the long viral genome segment from polymerase (pol) I-driven vectors and coexpression of the minimal viral-transacting factors NP and L from pol II-driven plasmids resulted in the efficient formation of infectious vir

SUBMITTER: Flatz L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1450228 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature