Identification of properties of the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus latent origin of replication that are essential for the efficient establishment and maintenance of intact plasmids.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

The maintenance of latent Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) genomes is mediated in cis by their terminal repeats (TR). A KSHV genome can have 16 to 50 copies of the 801-bp TR, each of which harbors a 71-bp-long minimal replicator element (MRE). A single MRE can support replication in transient assays, and the presence of as few as two TRs appears to support establishment of KSHV-derived plasmids. Why then does KSHV have such redundancy and heterogeneity in the number of TRs? By determining the abilities of KSHV-derived plasmids containing various numbers of the TRs and MREs to be established and maintained in the long term, we have found that plasmids with fewer than 16 TRs or those with tandem repeats of the MREs are maintained inefficiently, as shown by bo

SUBMITTER: Shrestha P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4135972 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature