Transcription enhancers as major determinants of SV40 polyomavirus growth efficiency and host cell tropism
Katharina Schmidt1, Simon Keiser1, Viola Günther1
1Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
The non-coding control region (NCCR) of polyomaviruses includes the promoters for early and late genes, a transcription enhancer and the origin of DNA replication. Particularly virulent variants of the human pathogens BKPyV and JCPyV, as well as of simian virus 40 (SV40), occur in vitro and in vivo. These strains often harbour rearrangements in their NCCR, typically deletions of some DNA segment(s) and/or duplications of others. Using an SV40-based model system we provide evidence that duplications of enhancer elements, whether from SV40 itself or from the related BKPyV and JCPyV, increase early gene transcription and replicative capacity. SV40 harbouring subsegments of the strong cytomegalovirus (HCMV) enhancer replicated better than the common 'wild-type' SV40 in the human cell lines HEK293 and U2OS. In conclusion, replacing the SV40 enhancer with heterologous enhancers can profoundly influence SV40's infective capacity, underscoring the potential of small DNA viruses to overcome cell type and species barriers.
More Related Videos
05:22Author Spotlight: Characterizing DNA Replication of Pathogenic Repeats to Uncover Mechanisms of Replication Fork Stalling and Expansion
Published on: September 13, 2024
11:36Author Spotlight: An Integrated Workflow to Study the Promoter-Centric Spatio-Temporal Genome Architecture in Scarce Cell Populations
Published on: April 21, 2023
Related Concept Videos
RNA Polymerase II Accessory Proteins
Transcription Factors
Eukaryotic Transcription Activators
The binding domains are capable of recognizing and interacting with regulatory sequences on the DNA. These...
Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors
Eukaryotic transcription inhibitors usually contain two distinct domains, a...
Retroviruses
Transcription Elongation Factors
The transcription elongation is regulated via pausing of RNA polymerase on several occasions during transcription. In bacteria, these halts are necessary because the transcription of DNA into mRNA is coupled to the translation of that mRNA...
