title: Replication of a foamy virus mutant with a constitutively active U3 promoter and deleted accessory genes.
abstract: Foamy viruses (FVs) are complex retroviruses which require for their replication the activity of a transcriptional trans-activator (Tas) as well as Tas-responsive elements in the viral promoters. A mutant of the chimpanzee FV strain, CFV/hu (previously called human FV), genome in which most of the U3 promoter of the CFV long terminal repeat was substituted by the constitutively active human cytomegalovirus immediate early gene enhancer/promoter was constructed. This plasmid (pTS12) and a derivative (pTS13), which has a deletion in the tas gene, gave rise to replication-competent virus. Compared with parental CFV, both mutants replicated only very poorly, with retarded growth kinetics and maximal cell-free virus titres reduced by approximately three orders of magnitude. Mutation of the DD35E motif of the CFV integrase to DA35E rendered the recombinant TS virus replication-deficient. This indicated that provirus integration is probably still required for this FV derivative, which had been converted from a complex regulated retrovirus into a simple one by incorporation of a constitutively active promoter from another virus which regularly does not integrate into the host cell genome.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schenk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Enssle
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rethwilm
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D005814:Genes, Viral; D006801:Humans; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016092:Spumavirus / Q000502:physiology*; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics*; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; C074061:bel1 protein, Human foamy virus