Possible role of splice acceptor site in expression of unspliced gag-containing message of Moloney murine leukemia virus

Abstract

Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV) having the gag coding region alone, G3.6, produced a low level of mRNA (1/10 of the wild-type level). Ligation of 441 nucleotides (nt) containing a splice acceptor (SA) site to the downstream portion of the remaining gag region restored the level of the unspliced message, simultaneously activating a cryptic splice donor (SD) site in the middle of the p30 coding region (between nt 1596 and 1597). Ligation of the 441 nt in the same site in the inverted orientation also increased the level of the unspliced message, activating the same SD site (between nt 1596 and 1597) and a new SA site just in front of the inserted 441 nt (between nt 4770 and 4771). Deletion or inversion of the 441-nt SA sequence from the wild-type MLV or from int in-frame deletion or int frameshift mutant MLVs of nearly full size resulted in the loss of spliced mRNA and concomitantly in a severe reduction of the unspliced mRNA, particularly at 37 degrees C. Deletion of the 5' SD site did not result in the reduction of the unspliced-mRNA level. When the gag region in G3.6 was replaced with a Neo(r) coding region, the level of expression was high. The data taken together suggest that the presence of an SA signal is necessary for high-level expression of unspliced mRNA encoding Gag or Gag-Pol.