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Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes: A Functional Genomics Tool for the Study of Positive-strand RNA Viruses
Published on: December 29, 2015
Reprint of: Coronavirus reverse genetic systems: infectious clones and replicons
Fernando Almazán1, Isabel Sola1, Sonia Zuñiga1
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB-CSIC), Campus Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin 3, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
Coronaviruses (CoVs) infect humans and many animal species, and are associated with respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and central nervous system diseases. The large size of the CoV genome and the instability of some CoV replicase gene sequences during its propagation in bacteria, represent serious obstacles for the development of reverse genetic systems similar to those used for smaller positive sense RNA viruses. To overcome these limitations, several alternatives to more conventional plasmid-based approaches have been established in the last 13 years. In this report, we briefly review and discuss the different reverse genetic systems developed for CoVs, paying special attention to the severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV).
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