Transcriptional analysis of multigene family 110 of African swine fever virus

Abstract

A transcriptional analysis of the 3.2-kb region of the African swine fever virus genome containing the five members of the multigene family 110 is presented. The mRNAs corresponding to the genes studied have short leader sequences with no intervening AUG codons before the translational start site, and their 3' ends map within a conserved sequence motif formed by a stretch of seven or more consecutive thymidylate residues. The possible role of this sequence as a signal for the 3'-end formation of African swine fever virus mRNAs is discussed. While four of the genes studied are actively transcribed from the beginning of the infection until the onset of virus DNA replication, the transcription of one of the members of the multigene family 110, the L270 gene, is silenced at an earlier time. A detailed analysis, including in vitro translation of mRNAs isolated from infected Vero cells, revealed that the L270 gene belongs to a small subset of early genes, designated immediate early, whose transcription is silenced before the onset of virus DNA replication. The transcriptional data obtained enabled us to generate the first detailed transcriptional map of a region of the African swine fever virus genome, thus opening the possibility of studying the cis-acting sequences involved in transcriptional control of the viral genes.