title: Merkel cell polyomavirus encodes a microRNA with the ability to autoregulate viral gene expression.
abstract: microRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that play a role in viral infection. We have developed a method to identify viral-encoded miRNAs from viruses in which abundant amounts of infected material is limiting. We show that Merkel Cell Polyomavirus (MCV), a recently identified human virus associated with cancer, encodes a miRNA. This miRNA is expressed from the late strand, lies antisense to the early transcripts and negatively regulates expression of chimeric reporters containing a portion of the early transcripts. Interestingly, different viral isolates have sequence polymorphisms in the pre-miRNA region that result in amino acids substitutions but fully preserve the processing and activity of the miRNAs.
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, 78712-0162, USA.
authors.forename: Gil Ju
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Chun Jung
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D006801:Humans; D018862:Merkel Cells / Q000821:virology*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011120:Polyomavirus / Q000502:physiology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012367:RNA, Viral