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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes: A Functional Genomics Tool for the Study of Positive-strand RNA Viruses
Published on: December 29, 2015
The X protein of borna disease virus serves essential functions in the viral multiplication cycle
Marion Poenisch1, Sandra Wille, Andreas Ackermann
1Department of Virology, University of Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Strasse 11, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The X gene of Borna disease virus (BDV) encodes a nonstructural 10-kDa protein that can interact with viral polymerase cofactor P, thus regulating polymerase activity. It remained unknown whether X is essential for virus multiplication. All our attempts to generate mutant BDV with a nonfunctional X gene proved unsuccessful. However, a mutant virus with an inactive X gene was able to replicate in Vero cells if an artificial gene cassette encoding X was inserted at a site near the 5' end of the viral genome. These results indicate that X performs essential viral functions.
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