Internal ribosomal entry site-mediated translation initiation in equine rhinitis A virus: similarities to and differences from that of foot-and-mouth disease virus

Equine rhinitis A virus (ERAV) has recently been classified as an aphthovirus, a genus otherwise comprised of the different serotypes of Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). FMDV initiates translation via a type II internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) and utilizes two in-frame AUG codons to produce the leader proteinases Lab and Lb. Here we show that the ERAV 5' nontranslated region also possesses the core structures of a type II IRES. The functional activity of this region was characterized by transfection of bicistronic plasmids into BHK-21 cells. In this system the core type II structures, stem-loops D to L, in addition to a stem-loop (termed M) downstream of the first putative initiation codon, are required for translation of the second reporter gene. In FMDV, translation of Lb is more efficient than that of Lab despite the downstream location of the Lb AUG codon. The ERAV genome also has putative initiation sites in positions similar to those utilized in FMDV, except that in ERAV these are present as two AUG pairs (AUGAUG). Using the bicistronic expression system, we detected initiation from both AUG pairs, although in contrast to FMDV, the first site is strongly favored over the second. Mutational analysis of the AUG codons indicated that AUG2 is the major initiation site, although AUG1 can be accessed, albeit inefficiently, in the absence of AUG2. Further mutational analysis indicated that codons downstream of AUG2 appear to be accessed by a mechanism other than leaky scanning. Furthermore, we present preliminary evidence that it is possible for ribosomes to access downstream of the two AUG pairs. This study reveals important differences in IRES function between aphthoviruses.