Murine Polyomavirus encodes a microRNA that cleaves early RNA transcripts but is not essential for experimental infection
- 9 March 2009
- journal article
- Published by Elsevier BV in Virology
- Vol. 387 (1), 157-167
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2009.02.017
Abstract
MicroRNAs are small regulatory RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression and can be encoded by viral as well as cellular genomes. The functions of most viral miRNAs are unknown and few have been studied in an in vivo context. Here we show that the murine polyomavirus (PyV) encodes a precursor microRNA that is processed into two mature microRNAs, both of which are active at directing the cleavage of the early PyV mRNAs. Furthermore, we identify a deletion mutant of polyomavirus that is defective in encoding the microRNAs. This mutant replicates normally and transforms cultured cells with efficiencies comparable to wildtype PyV. The miRNA mutant is competent to establish a transient infection of mice following parenteral inoculation, and is cleared post infection at approximately the same rate as the wildtype virus. In addition, under these laboratory conditions, we observe no differences in anti-viral CD8 T cell responses. These results indicate that PyV miRNA expression is not essential for infection of cultured cells or experimentally inoculated mice, and raise the possibility that its role in natural infection might involve aspects of acquisition or spread that are not recapitulated by experimental inoculation.Keywords
This publication has 63 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation by microRNAs: are the answers in sight?Nature Reviews Genetics, 2008
- The functions of herpesvirus-encoded microRNAsMedical Microbiology and Immunology, 2007
- A viral microRNA functions as an orthologue of cellular miR-155Nature, 2007
- Epstein-Barr virus-encoded microRNA miR-BART2 down-regulates the viral DNA polymerase BALF5Nucleic Acids Research, 2007
- Modulation of LMP1 protein expression by EBV-encoded microRNAsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2007
- Adenovirus Virus-Associated RNAII-Derived Small RNAs Are Efficiently Incorporated into the RNA-Induced Silencing Complex and Associate with PolyribosomesJournal of Virology, 2007
- MicroRNA biogenesis: coordinated cropping and dicingNature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2005
- The Microprocessor complex mediates the genesis of microRNAsNature, 2004
- Processing of primary microRNAs by the Microprocessor complexNature, 2004
- MicroRNAs: small RNAs with a big role in gene regulationNature Reviews Genetics, 2004