ARTICLE ABSTRACT
								DOI: 10.1099/vir.0.19424-0
								Online 19 June 2003

Mechanisms and enzymes involved in SARS coronavirus genome expression

Volker Thiel,¹ Konstantin A. Ivanov,¹ Ákos Putics,¹ Tobias Hertzig,¹ Barbara Schelle,¹ Sonja Bayer,¹ Benedikt Weissbrich,¹ Eric J. Snijder,² Holger Rabenau,³ Hans Wilhelm Doerr,³ Alexander E. Gorbalenya² and John Ziebuhr¹

¹Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of Würzburg, Versbacher Str. 7, 97078 Würzburg, Germany
²Molecular Virology Laboratory, Department of Medical Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
³Institute for Medical Virology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt (Main), Germany

A novel coronavirus is the causative agent of the current epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Coronaviruses are exceptionally large RNA viruses and employ complex regulatory mechanisms to express their genomes. Here, we determined the sequence of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), isolate Frankfurt 1, and characterized key RNA elements and protein functions involved in viral genome expression. Important regulatory mechanisms, such as the (discontinuous) synthesis of eight subgenomic mRNAs, ribosomal frameshifting and post-translational proteolytic processing, were addressed. Activities of three SARS coronavirus enzymes, the helicase and two cysteine proteinases, which are known to be critically involved in replication, transcription and/or post-translational polyprotein processing, were characterized. The availability of recombinant forms of key replicative enzymes of SARS coronavirus should pave the way for high-throughput screening approaches to identify candidate inhibitors in compound libraries.

Click here for full text HTML

JGV Direct table of contents

© 2003 SGM

This article is now available in the September 2003 print issue of JGV (vol. 84, 2305–2315). The complete issue of the journal may be seen in electronic form on JGV Online.