Elucidating and minimizing the loss by recombinant vaccinia virus of human immunodeficiency virus gene expression resulting from spontaneous mutations and positive selection.

ABSTRACT: While characterizing modified vaccinia virus recombinants (rMVAs) containing human immunodeficiency virus env and gag-pol genes, we detected nonexpressing mutants by immunostaining individual plaques. In many cases, the numbers of mutants increased during successive passages, indicating strong selection pressure. This phenomenon provided an opportunity to investigate the formation of spontaneous mutations in vaccinia virus, which encodes its own cytoplasmic replication system, and a challenge to reduce the occurrence of mutations for vaccine production. Analysis of virus from individual plaques indicated that loss of expression was due to frameshift mutations, mostly by addition or deletion of a single nucleotide in runs of four to six Gs or Cs, and large deletions that included MVA DNA fl

SUBMITTER: Wyatt LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2704791 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature