Clinical polyomavirus BK variants with agnogene deletion are non-functional but rescued by trans-complementation
- Department of Microbiology and Virology, Institute of Medical Biology, University of Tromso, Tromso (Norway)
- Transplantation Virology, Institute for Medical Microbiology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel (Switzerland)
High-level replication of polyomavirus BK (BKV) in kidney transplant recipients is associated with the emergence of BKV variants with rearranged (rr) non-coding control region (NCCR) increasing viral early gene expression and cytopathology. Cloning and sequencing revealed the presence of a BKV quasispecies which included non-functional variants when assayed in a recombinant virus assay. Here we report that the rr-NCCR of BKV variants RH-3 and RH-12, both bearing a NCCR deletion including the 5' end of the agnoprotein coding sequence, mediated early and late viral reporter gene expression in kidney cells. However, in a recombinant virus they failed to produce infectious progeny despite large T-antigen and VP1 expression and the formation of nuclear virus-like particles. Infectious progeny was generated when the agnogene was reconstructed in cis or agnoprotein provided in trans from a co-existing BKV rr-NCCR variant. We conclude that complementation can rescue non-functional BKV variants in vitro and possibly in vivo.
- OSTI ID:
- 21357597
- Journal Information:
- Virology, Vol. 398, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2009.11.029; PII: S0042-6822(09)00765-X; Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; ISSN 0042-6822
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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