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Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes: A Functional Genomics Tool for the Study of Positive-strand RNA Viruses
Published on: December 29, 2015
RNA Editing as a General Trait of Ebolaviruses
Masfique Mehedi1, Stacy Ricklefs2, Ayato Takada3
1Laboratory of Virology.
Abstract:
RNA editing has been discovered as an essential mechanism for the transcription of the glycoprotein (GP) gene of Ebola virus but not Marburg virus. We developed a rapid transcript quantification assay (RTQA) to analyze RNA transcripts generated through RNA editing and used immunoblotting with a pan-ebolavirus monoclonal antibody to confirm different GP gene-derived products. RTQA successfully quantified GP gene transcripts during infection with representative members of 5 ebolavirus species. Immunoblotting verified expression of the soluble GP and the transmembrane GP. Our results defined RNA editing as a general trait of ebolaviruses. The degree of editing, however, varies among ebolaviruses with Reston virus showing the lowest and Bundibugyo virus the highest degree of editing.
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