Measles virus defective interfering RNAs are generated frequently and early in the absence of C protein and can be destabilized by adenosine deaminase acting on RNA-1-like hypermutations

Defective interfering RNAs (DI-RNAs) of the viral genome can form during infections of negative-strand RNA viruses and outgrow full-length viral genomes, thereby modulating the severity and duration of infection. Here we document the frequent de novo generation of copy-back DI-RNAs from independent rescue events both for a vaccine measles virus (vac2) and for a wildtype measles virus (IC323) as early as passage 1 after virus rescue. Moreover, vaccine and wild-type C-protein-deficient (C-protein- knockout [C^KO]) measles viruses generated about 10 times more DI-RNAs than parental virus, suggesting that C enhances the processivity of the viral polymerase. We obtained the nucleotide sequences of 65 individual DI-RNAs, identified breakpoints and reinitiation sites, and predicted their structural features. Several DI-RNAs possessed clusters of A-to-G or U-to-C transitions. Sequences flanking these mutation sites were characteristic of those favored by adenosine deaminase acting on RNA-1 (ADAR1), which catalyzes in double-stranded RNA the C-6 deamination of adenosine to produce inosine, which is recognized as guanosine, a process known as A-to-I RNA editing. In individual DI-RNAs the transitions were of the same type and occurred on both sides of the breakpoint. These patterns of mutations suggest that ADAR1 edits unencapsidated DI-RNAs that form doublestrand RNA structures. Encapsidated DI-RNAs were incorporated into virus particles, which reduced the infectivity of virus stocks. The C^KO phenotype was dominant: DI-RNAs derived from vac2 with a C^KO suppressed the replication of vac2, as shown by coinfections of interferon-incompetent lymphatic cells with viruses expressing different fluorescent reporter proteins. In contrast, coinfection with a C-protein-expressing virus did not counteract the suppressive phenotype of DI-RNAs.