title: Expression of a second open reading frame present in the genome of tick-borne encephalitis virus strain Neudoerfl is not detectable in infected cells.
abstract: A short upstream open reading frame (uORF) was recently identified in the 5' untranslated region of some tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) strains. However, it is not known if the peptide encoded by TBEV uORF (TuORF) is expressed in infected cells. Here we show that TuORF forms three phylogenetically separated clades which are typical of European, Siberian, and Far-Eastern TBEV subtypes. Analysis of selection pressure acting on the TuORF area showed that it is under positive selection pressure. Theoretically, TuORF may code for a short hydrophobic peptide embedded in a biological membrane. However, expression of TuORF was detectable neither by immunoblotting in tick and mammalian cell lines infected with TBEV nor by immunofluorescence in TBEV-infected mammalian cell lines. These results support the idea that TuORF is not expressed in TBEV-infected cell or expressed in undetectably low concentrations. Therefore we can assume that TuORF has either minor or no biological role in the TBEV life cycle.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic. cerny@paru.cas.cz.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic. cerny@paru.cas.cz.|Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 296/70, 621 00, Brno, Czech Republic. cerny@paru.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Černý
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Selinger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 296/70, 621 00, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Palus
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Zuzana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Vavrušková
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tykalová
authors.affiliation: The Pirbright Institute, Ash Road, Pirbright, Woking, Surrey, GU24 0NF, UK.
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bell-Sakyi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ján
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Štěrba
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Libor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grubhoffer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 296/70, 621 00, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Růžek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne / Q000235:genetics*; D004675:Encephalitis, Tick-Borne / Q000821:virology*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D018884:Ixodes / Q000821:virology; D008527:Medulloblastoma / Q000821:virology; D009154:Mutation; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000821:virology; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010452:Peptide Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: Immunoblotting; Immunofluorescence; TBEV; TuORF; uORF