In vivo model for pseudo-templated transcription in Sendai virus

A synthetic Sendai virus-like recombinant RNA was used to develop a model system for pseudo-templated transcription of the P/C gene. The synthetic RNA molecule contains a 42-base stretch of nucleotide sequence derived from the RNA editing site of the P/C gene embedded into the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene. When this construct was rescued into Sendai virus, it was found that this 42-base sequence was sufficient to allow the Sendai virus polymerase to transcribe mRNAs with G-nucleotide insertions. Edited mRNA species containing a single nontemplated G insertion were found at a frequency of 6.5%, while rare messages had two G residues inserted. Edited viral RNA was not apparent, suggesting that this event is appropriately excluded during replication of the model genome. By progressively deleting from the 3' end, we found that a 24-nucleotide sequence spanning the G-insertion site was sufficient for pseudo-templated transcription in our system.