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Updated: Feb 22, 2026

Kinetics of Lagging-strand DNA Synthesis In Vitro by the Bacteriophage T7 Replication Proteins
Published on: February 25, 2017
CpG and UpA dinucleotides in both coding and non-coding regions of echovirus 7 inhibit replication initiation
Jelke Jan Fros1, Isabelle Dietrich1, Kinda Alshaikhahmed1
1Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Viruses suppress CpG and UpA dinucleotides to mimic host mRNA. Increasing these dinucleotides in viruses like echovirus 7 (E7) restricts replication via an unknown intrinsic host defense mechanism, independent of translation efficiency.
Area of Science:
- Virology
- Molecular Biology
- Immunology
Background:
- Vertebrate and plant viruses often suppress CpG and UpA dinucleotide frequencies.
- This suppression is thought to mimic host messenger RNA (mRNA) composition.
- Artificial increases in CpG/UpA dinucleotides can attenuate viruses through an unknown mechanism.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mechanism by which increased CpG/UpA dinucleotides restrict viral replication.
- To determine if this restriction is linked to translation efficiency or other cellular processes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized echovirus 7 (E7) mutants with increased CpG/UpA dinucleotides in various cell types.
- Analyzed viral replication, RNA sequences, mutational errors, cytoplasmic stress granule localization, and induction of antiviral states.
- Assessed replication efficiency of replicons with high CpG/UpA sequences in non-coding regions.
Main Results:
- Restriction of E7 replication with increased CpG/UpA occurred immediately post-entry, preventing replication complex formation.
- Viral RNA sequences showed no increased mutational errors, were not sequestered in stress granules, and did not induce an antiviral state.
- Replicons with high CpG/UpA in non-coding regions were also replication defective, indicating independence from translation efficiency.
Conclusions:
- Host cells possess intrinsic defense pathways that restrict viral replication based on CpG/UpA dinucleotide frequencies.
- This restriction mechanism is independent of codon usage and translation efficiency.
- The findings reveal a novel host-virus interaction impacting early viral replication stages.
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