A Point Mutation in the Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 2 Nucleoprotein Leads to Two Separate Effects on Virus Replication.

ABSTRACT: Paramyxovirus genomes, like that of human parainfluenza virus type 2 (hPIV2), have lengths of precisely multiples-of-six nucleotides ("rule of six"), where each nucleoprotein subunit (NP) binds exactly six nucleotides. Ten residues of its RNA binding groove contact the genome RNA; but only one, Q202, directly contacts a nucleotide base. The mutation of NP^Q202 leads to two phenotypes: the ability of the viral polymerase to replicate minigenomes with defective bipartite promoters where NP^wt is inactive, and the inability to rescue rPIV2 carrying this point mutation by standard means. The absence of an rPIV2 NP^Q202A prevented further study of the latter phenotype. By extensive and repeated cocultivation of transfected cells, an rPIV2 carrying this mutation was

SUBMITTER: Saka N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8865444 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature