scholarly journals Development of a Reverse Genetics System for Toscana Virus (Lineage A)

Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira J. T. Alexander ◽  
Marie-Pierre Confort ◽  
Sophie Desloire ◽  
James I. Dunlop ◽  
Srikeerthana Kuchi ◽  
...  

Toscana virus (TOSV) is a Phlebovirus in the Phenuiviridae family, order Bunyavirales, found in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. TOSV is an important cause of seasonal acute meningitis and encephalitis within its range. Here, we determined the full sequence of the TOSV strain 1500590, a lineage A virus obtained from an infected patient (Marseille, 2007) and used this in combination with other sequence information to construct functional cDNA plasmids encoding the viral L, M, and S antigenomic sequences under the control of the T7 RNA promoter to recover recombinant viruses. Importantly, resequencing identified two single nucleotide changes to a TOSV reference genome, which, when corrected, restored functionality to the polymerase L and made it possible to recover infectious recombinant TOSV (rTOSV) from cDNA, as well as establish a minigenome system. Using reverse genetics, we produced an NSs-deletant rTOSV and also obtained viruses expressing reporter genes instead of NSs. The availability of such a system assists investigating questions that require genetic manipulation of the viral genome, such as investigations into replication and tropism, and beyond these fundamental aspects, also the development of novel vaccine design strategies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 101 (10) ◽  
pp. 1021-1024
Author(s):  
Severino Jefferson Ribeiro da Silva ◽  
Renata Pessôa Germano Mendes ◽  
Caroline Targino Alves da Silva ◽  
Alessio Lorusso ◽  
Alain Kohl ◽  
...  

The emergence and rapid worldwide spread of a novel pandemic of acute respiratory disease – eventually named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO) – across the human population has raised great concerns. It prompted a mobilization around the globe to study the underlying pathogen, a close relative of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Numerous genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 are now available and in-depth analyses are advancing. These will allow detailed characterization of sequence and protein functions, including comparative studies. Care should be taken when inferring function from sequence information alone, and reverse genetics systems can be used to unequivocally identify key features. For example, the molecular markers of virulence, host range and transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 can be compared to those of related viruses in order to shed light on the biology of this emerging pathogen. Here, we summarize some recent insights from genomic studies and strategies for reverse genetics systems to generate recombinant viruses, which will be useful to investigate viral genome properties and evolution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-109
Author(s):  
Hsuan Chen ◽  
Jason D. Lattier ◽  
Kelly Vining ◽  
Ryan N. Contreras

Lilacs (Syringa sp.) have been used as ornamental plants since the mid-16th century and remain important in modern gardens due to their attractive and fragrant flowers. However, a short flowering season is a critical drawback for their ornamental value. Breeders have identified remontancy (reblooming) in dwarf lilac (Syringa pubescens), and have tried to introgress this trait into related species by interspecific hybridization. Molecular tools for lilac breeding are limited because of the shortage of genome sequence knowledge and currently no molecular markers are available to use in breeding for remontancy. In this study, an F1 population from crossing Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’ × S. pubescens ‘Penda’ Bloomerang® Purple was created and subjected to genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) analysis and phenotyped for remontancy. Plants were categorized as remontant, semi-remontant, and nonremontant based on the relative quantity of inflorescences during the second flush of flowers. A total of 20,730 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from GBS were used in marker-trait association to find remontant-specific marker(s) without marker position information. Two SNP markers, TP70580 (A locus) and TP82604 (B locus), were correlated with remontancy. The two loci showed a partial epistasis and additive interaction effects on the level of remontancy. Accumulation of recessive alleles at the two loci was positively correlated with increased reblooming. For example, 87% of aabb plants were remontant, and only 9% were nonremontant. In contrast, 100% of AaBB plants were nonremontant. These two SNP markers associated with remontancy will be useful in developing markers for future breeding and demonstrate the feasibility of developing markers for breeding woody ornamental taxa that lack a reference genome or extensive DNA sequence information.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Delli ponti ◽  
Alexandros Armaos ◽  
Stefanie Marti ◽  
Gian Gaetano Tartaglia

AbstractTo compare the secondary structures of RNA molecules we developed the CROSSalign method. CROSSalign is based on the combination of the Computational Recognition Of Secondary Structure (CROSS) algorithm to predict the RNA secondary structure at single-nucleotide resolution using sequence information, and the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) method to align profiles of different lengths. We applied CROSSalign to investigate the structural conservation of long non-coding RNAs such as XIST and HOTAIR as well as ssRNA viruses including HIV. In a pool of sequences with the same secondary structure CROSSalign accurately recognizes repeat A of XIST and domain D2 of HOTAIR and outperforms other methods based on covariance modelling. CROSSalign can be applied to perform pair-wise comparisons and is able to find homologues between thousands of matches identifying the exact regions of similarity between profiles of different lengths. The algorithm is freely available at the webpage http://service.tartaglialab.com//new_submission/CROSSalign.


Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Gyeong Lee ◽  
Sang Chul Choi ◽  
Yuna Kang ◽  
Kyeong Min Kim ◽  
Chon-Sik Kang ◽  
...  

The whole genome sequencing (WGS) has become a crucial tool in understanding genome structure and genetic variation. The MinION sequencing of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) is an excellent approach for performing WGS and it has advantages in comparison with other Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS): It is relatively inexpensive, portable, has simple library preparation, can be monitored in real-time, and has no theoretical limits on reading length. Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench is diploid (2n = 2x = 20) with a genome size of about 730 Mb, and its genome sequence information is released in the Phytozome database. Therefore, sorghum can be used as a good reference. However, plant species have complex and large genomes when compared to animals or microorganisms. As a result, complete genome sequencing is difficult for plant species. MinION sequencing that produces long-reads can be an excellent tool for overcoming the weak assembly of short-reads generated from NGS by minimizing the generation of gaps or covering the repetitive sequence that appears on the plant genome. Here, we conducted the genome sequencing for S. bicolor cv. BTx623 while using the MinION platform and obtained 895,678 reads and 17.9 gigabytes (Gb) (ca. 25× coverage of reference) from long-read sequence data. A total of 6124 contigs (covering 45.9%) were generated from Canu, and a total of 2661 contigs (covering 50%) were generated from Minimap and Miniasm with a Racon through a de novo assembly using two different tools and mapped assembled contigs against the sorghum reference genome. Our results provide an optimal series of long-read sequencing analysis for plant species while using the MinION platform and a clue to determine the total sequencing scale for optimal coverage that is based on various genome sizes.


Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 301
Author(s):  
Bingyu Yan ◽  
Xiaohui Zou ◽  
Xinglong Liu ◽  
Jiaming Zhao ◽  
Wenfeng Zhang ◽  
...  

A novel fowl adenovirus 4 (FAdV-4) has caused significant economic losses to the poultry industry in China since 2015. We established an easy-to-use reverse genetics system for modification of the whole right and partial left ends of the novel FAdV-4 genome, which worked through cell-free reactions of restriction digestion and Gibson assembly. Three recombinant viruses were constructed to test the assumption that species-specific viral genes of ORF4 and ORF19A might be responsible for the enhanced virulence: viral genes of ORF1, ORF1b and ORF2 were replaced with GFP to generate FAdV4-GFP, ORF4 was replaced with mCherry in FAdV4-GFP to generate FAdV4-GX4C, and ORF19A was deleted in FAdV4-GFP to generate FAdV4-CX19A. Deletion of ORF4 made FAdV4-GX4C form smaller plaques while ORF19A deletion made FAdV4-CX19A form larger ones on chicken LMH cells. Coding sequence (CDS) replacement with reporter mCherry demonstrated that ORF4 had a weak promoter. Survival analysis showed that FAdV4-CX19A-infected chicken embryos survived one more day than FAdV4-GFP- or FAdV4-GX4C-infected ones. The results illustrated that ORF4 and ORF19A were non-essential genes for FAdV-4 replication although deletion of either gene influenced virus growth. This work would help function study of genes on the right end of FAdV-4 genome and facilitate development of attenuated vaccines.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijai Bhadauria ◽  
Sabine Banniza ◽  
Yangdou Wei ◽  
You-Liang Peng

Sequencing of over 40 fungal and oomycete genomes has been completed. The next major challenge in modern fungal/oomycete biology is now to translate this plethora of genome sequence information into biological functions. Reverse genetics has emerged as a seminal tool for functional genomics investigations. Techniques utilized for reverse genetics like targeted gene disruption/replacement, gene silencing, insertional mutagenesis, and targeting induced local lesions in genomes will contribute greatly to the understanding of gene function of fungal and oomycete pathogens. This paper provides an overview on high-throughput reverse genetics approaches to decode fungal/oomycete genomes.


2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (13) ◽  
pp. 6430-6440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Hartman ◽  
Jason E. Dover ◽  
Jonathan S. Towner ◽  
Stuart T. Nichol

ABSTRACT The VP35 protein of Zaire Ebola virus is an essential component of the viral RNA polymerase complex and also functions to antagonize the cellular type I interferon (IFN) response by blocking activation of the transcription factor IRF-3. We previously mapped the IRF-3 inhibitory domain within the C terminus of VP35. In the present study, we show that mutations that disrupt the IRF-3 inhibitory function of VP35 do not disrupt viral transcription/replication, suggesting that the two functions of VP35 are separable. Second, using reverse genetics, we successfully recovered recombinant Ebola viruses containing mutations within the IRF-3 inhibitory domain. Importantly, we show that the recombinant viruses were attenuated for growth in cell culture and that they activated IRF-3 and IRF-3-inducible gene expression at levels higher than that for Ebola virus containing wild-type VP35. In the context of Ebola virus pathogenesis, VP35 may function to limit early IFN-β production and other antiviral signals generated from cells at the primary site of infection, thereby slowing down the host's ability to curb virus replication and induce adaptive immunity.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document