Human cytomegalovirus stimulates host cell RNA synthesis.

Human cytomegalovirus infection of human fibroblast cells (WI-38) induced cellular RNA synthesis. The RNA synthesis in infected cultures preceded the synthesis of viral DNA and progeny virus by approximately 24 h. RNA species synthesized in infected cells included ribosomal 28S and 18S; and 4S transfer RNA; all were markedly increased in comparison to uninfected cells. This induction of host cell RNA synthesis was dependent upon a protein(s) that was synthesized during the early stages of infection.     

Sequence of protein synthesis in cells infected by human cytomegalovirus: early and late virus-induced polypeptides.

At least 10 distinct early virus-induced polypeptides were synthesized within 0 to 6 h after infection of permissive cells with cytomegalovirus. These virus-induced polypeptides were synthesized before and independently of viral DNA replication. A majority of these early virus-induced polypeptides were also synthesized in nonpermissive cells, which do not permit viral DNA replication. The virus-induced polypeptides synthesized before viral DNA replication were hypothesized to be nonstructural proteins coded for by the cytomegalovirus genome. Their synthesis was found to be a sequential process, since three proteins preceded the synthesis of the others. Synthesis of all early cytomegalovirus-induced proteins was a transient process; the proteins reached their highest molar ratios before the onset of viral DNA replication. Late viral proteins were synthesized at the time of the onset of viral DNA replication, which was approximately 15 h after infection. Their synthesis was continuous and increased in molar ratios with the accumulation of newly synthesized viral DNA in the cells. The presence of the amino acid analog canavanine or azetadine during the early stage of infection suppressed viral DNA replication. The amount of viral DNA synthesis was directly correlated to the relative amount of late viral protein synthesis. Because synthesis of late viral proteins depended upon viral DNA replication, the proteins were not detected in permissive cells treated with an inhibitor of viral DNA synthesis or in nonpermissive cells that are restrictive for cytomegalovirus DNA replication.     

Synthesis of Avian Oncornavirus DNA in Infected Chicken Cells

The intracellular synthesis and integration of viral DNA (vDNA) into the host cell genome was studied in cultured chicken embryo fibroblasts infected with avian sarcoma or leukemia viruses. The newly synthesized vDNA was detected by hybridization with 70S viral RNA. Extraction of infected cell DNA by the selective procedure of Hirt resulted in the enrichment of newly synthesized vDNA in the low molecular weight supernatant fraction while leaving the bulk of cellular DNA containing integrated vDNA in the high molecular weight pellet fraction. This approach led to detection of intracellular vDNA synthesis within 1 h after infection and to vDNA integration into cellular DNA within 24 h. There was a several-fold increase in the vDNA content of infected cells during the initial phase of virus infection. But only a part of this newly synthesized vDNA appeared to become covalently linked with high molecular weight cellular DNA. Most of the remaining unintegrated vDNA gradually disappeared. The sedimentation profiles of minimally sheared cellular DNA in alkaline sucrose velocity gradients suggest that vDNA is synthesized as free linear molecules of approximately 3 x 10(6) daltons which subsequently are covalently linked to host cell DNA.     

Temporal aspects of DNA and RNA synthesis during human immunodeficiency virus infection: evidence for differential gene expression.

The kinetics of retroviral DNA and RNA synthesis are parameters vital to understanding viral growth, especially for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which encodes several of its own regulatory genes. We have established a single-cycle growth condition for HIV in H9 cells, a human CD4+ lymphocyte line. The full-length viral linear DNA is first detectable by 4 h postinfection. During a one-step growth of HIV, amounts of viral DNA gradually increase until 8 to 12 h postinfection and then decrease. The copy number of unintegrated viral DNA is not extraordinarily high even at its peak. Most strikingly, there is a temporal program of RNA accumulation: the earliest RNA is greatly enriched in the 2-kilobase subgenomic mRNA species, while the level of 9.2-kilobase RNA which is both genomic RNA and mRNA remains low until after 24 h of infection. Virus production begins at about 24 h postinfection. Thus, viral DNA synthesis is as rapid as for other retroviruses, but viral RNA synthesis involves temporal alteration in the species that accumulate, presumably as a consequence of viral regulatory genes.     

Human cytomegalovirus induces expression of cellular topoisomerase II.

Previous work from our laboratory has suggested that topoisomerase II is required for replication of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). In assays of confluent human embryonic lung cells infected with HCMV, topoisomerase II inhibitors exhibited an irreversible inhibition of viral DNA replication. However, Northern (RNA blot) and Western (immunoblot) analyses of confluent uninfected human embryonic lung cells detected very low levels of cellular topoisomerase II RNA and protein. Quantitation of human topoisomerase II RNA and protein levels at various times after HCMV infection revealed that HCMV induces increased intracellular levels of both topoisomerase II RNA and protein. Such accumulation began at early times of infection, continued through late in infection, and was not reduced by inhibition of viral DNA synthesis. This is the first report of such induction by a viral infection. Topoisomerase II was also detected in isolated HCMV virions.     

Simian Virus 40-Host Cell Interaction During Lytic Infection

Both exponentially growing and serum-arrested subcloned CV-1 cell cultures were infected with simian virus 40 (SV40). By 24 h after infection 96% of the nuclei of these permissive cells contained SV40 T-antigen. Analysis of the average DNA content per cell at various times after infection indicated that by 24 h most of the cells contained amounts of DNA similar to those normally found in G(2) cells. Analysis of cell cycle distributions indicated that a G(2) DNA complement was maintained by over 90% of the cells in the infected populations 24 to 48 h postinfection. Cells continued to synthesize SV40 DNA during the first 50 h after infection, and cytopathic effect was first observed 60 h after inoculation. After infection the number of mitotic cells that could be recovered by selective detachment decreased precipitously and was drastically reduced by 24 h. A study of the kinetics of decline in the number of mitotic cells suggests that this decline is related to an event during the cell cycle at or near the G(1)-S-phase border upon which commencement of SV40 DNA replication apparently depends. It was concluded that after SV40 infection, stationary cells are induced to cycle, and cycling cells complete one round of cellular DNA synthesis but do not divide. Although the infected cells continue to synthesize viral DNA, they do not appear able to reinitiate cellular DNA replication units. These results imply that the abundance of T-antigen (produced independently of cell cycle phase) in the presence of the enzymes required for continued DNA synthesis is not sufficient for reinitiation of cellular DNA synthesis.     

Coronavirus minus-strand RNA synthesis and effect of cycloheximide on coronavirus RNA synthesis.

The temporal sequence of coronavirus plus-strand and minus-strand RNA synthesis was determined in 17CL1 cells infected with the A59 strain of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV). MHV-induced fusion was prevented by keeping the pH of the medium below pH 6.8. This had no effect on the MHV replication cycle, but gave 5- to 10-fold-greater titers of infectious virus and delayed the detachment of cells from the monolayer which permitted viral RNA synthesis to be studied conveniently until at least 10 h postinfection. Seven species of poly(A)-containing viral RNAs were synthesized at early and late times after infection, in nonequal but constant ratios. MHV minus-strand RNA synthesis was first detected at about 3 h after infection and was found exclusively in the viral replicative intermediates and was not detected in 60S single-stranded form in infected cells. Early in the replication cycle, from 45 to 65% of the [3H]uridine pulse-labeled RF core of purified MHV replicative intermediates was in minus-strand RNA. The rate of minus-strand synthesis peaked at 5 to 6 h postinfection and then declined to about 20% of the maximum rate. The addition of cycloheximide before 3 h postinfection prevented viral RNA synthesis, whereas the addition of cycloheximide after viral RNA synthesis had begun resulted in the inhibition of viral RNA synthesis. The synthesis of both genome and subgenomic mRNAs and of viral minus strands required continued protein synthesis, and minus-strand RNA synthesis was three- to fourfold more sensitive to inhibition by cycloheximide than was plus-strand synthesis.