Bovine leukemia virus G4 enhances virus production

The nonstructural G4 gene of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) has been thought to function in virus replication. However, the discovery of the AS1 gene on the antisense strand of the G4 gene has affected this interpretation. In this study, we investigated the function of G4 in virus production independent of the AS1 gene using a reverse genetic approach, and briefly examined the association of the G4 protein with Tax, which is also a nonstructural protein that promotes virus replication. First, we constructed a mutant molecular clone of BLV with a nonsense mutation in G4 that had a minimal effect on the AS1 gene. Comparison of the wild-type and mutant molecular clones indicated that the nonsense mutation resulted in a reduction of virus in the culture supernatant and accumulation of viral RNA (vRNA) in cells. Moreover, G4 and Tax expression in cells was shown to synergistically enhance virus production. Therefore, we suggest that G4 enhances virus production through abrogation of vRNA accumulation.