A mutational anlaysis of the N-terminal protease of bovine viral diarrhea virus

A mutational anlaysis of the N-terminal protease of bovine viral diarrhea virus

The uncaped genomic RNA of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) initiates translation by recruitment of eukaryotic translation initiation factors at the internal ribosome entry site (IRES). N-terminal protease ($N^{pro}$) is the first translation product of the open reading frame (ORF). By using the vaccinia virus SP6 RNA polymerase transient expression system, we showed previously that deletion of $N^{pro}$ region reduced translation by 21%. To better understand the biological significance of $N^{pro}$ for translation, we carried out a mutational analysis of the $N^{pro}$ region of BVDV cloned in the intercistronic region of a bicistronic reporter plasmid. We constructed a bicistronic expression vector in which the entire 5 UTR and the mutated $N^{pro}$ region (${\Delta}386-901$, ${\Delta}415-901$ and ${\Delta}657-901$) was cloned between two reporter genes, chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) and luciferase (LUC). In vivo translation analyses showed that $N^{pro}$ region was dispensible for efficient translation. The results indicate that the $N^{pro}$ region is not essential for BVDV RNA translation and the 3' boundary of BVDV IRES is expanded into $N^{pro}$ region, suggesting that $N^{pro}$ may not play a major role in BVDV replication.