The mismatched nucleotides encoded in vaccinia virus flip-and-flop hairpin telomeres serve an essential role in virion maturation.

ABSTRACT: Poxvirus genomes consist of a linear duplex DNA that ends in short inverted and complementary hairpin structures. These elements also encode loops and mismatches that likely serve a role in genome packaging and perhaps replication. We constructed mutant vaccinia viruses (VACV) where the native hairpins were replaced by altered forms and tested effects on replication, assembly, and virulence. Our studies showed that structure, not sequence, likely determines function as one can replace an Orthopoxvirus (VACV) hairpin with one copied from a Leporipoxvirus with no effect on growth. Some loops can be deleted from VACV hairpins with little effect, but VACV bearing too few mismatches grew poorly and we couldn't recover viruses lacking all mismatches. Further studies were conducted using a mutant

SUBMITTER: Shenouda MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8956199 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature