@article{09bf48eeb3a4485b9b9e6caa9f76fc12,
title = "Analysis of the function of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus s segment untranslated region on growth capacity in vitro and on virulence in vivo",
abstract = "Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is a prototypic arenavirus. The function of untranslated regions (UTRs) of the LCMV genome has not been well studied except for the extreme 19 nucleotide residues of both the 50 and 30 termini. There are internal UTRs composed of 58 and 41 nucleotide residues in the 50 and 30 UTRs, respectively, in the LCMV S segment. Their functional roles have yet to be elucidated. In this study, reverse genetics and minigenome systems were established for LCMV strain WE and the function of these regions were analyzed. It was revealed that nucleotides 20-40 and 20-38 located downstream of the 19 nucleotides in the 50 and 30 termini, respectively, were involved in viral genome replication and transcription. Furthermore, it was revealed that the other internal UTRs (nucleotides 41-77 and 39-60 in the 50 and 30 termini, respectively) in the S segment were involved in virulence in vivo, even though these regions did not affect viral growth capacity in Vero cells. The introduction of LCMV with mutations in these regions attenuates the virus and may enable the production of LCMV vaccine candidates.",
keywords = "Arenavirus, LCMV strain WE, Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, Reverse genetics, Untranslated region",
author = "Satoshi Taniguchi and Tomoki Yoshikawa and Masayuki Shimojima and Shuetsu Fukushi and Takeshi Kurosu and Hideki Tani and Aiko Fukuma and Fumihiro Kato and Eri Nakayama and Takahiro Maeki and Shigeru Tajima and Lim, {Chang Kweng} and Hideki Ebihara and Shigeru Kyuwa and Shigeru Morikawa and Masayuki Saijo",
note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by Grant-in-aids from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant numbers 16K08041, 15K21645, and 11J02534) and by Grant-in-aids from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) (grant number 19fk0108072j0002). We thank Juan Carlos de la Torre and Shuzo Urata for providing us with the pRF vector system and for giving us technical advice on how to rescue recombinant LCMV. We thank Yoshiharu Matsuura for providing us with LCMV strain WE-NIID. We thank Koichiro Iha, Kie Yamamoto, Yoshimi Tsuda, Momoko Ogata, Yuto Suda, Makiko Ikeda, Ken-ichi Shibasaki, and Nor Azila Muhammad Azami for their technical assistance. Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by Grant-in-aids from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant numbers 16K08041, 15K21645, and 11J02534) and by Grant-in-aids from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) (grant number 19fk0108072j0002). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).",
year = "2020",
month = aug,
doi = "10.3390/v12080896",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "12",
journal = "Viruses",
issn = "1999-4915",
publisher = "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)",
number = "8",
}