A. Barco et al., THE YEAST SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE AS A GENETIC SYSTEM FOR OBTAINING VARIANTS OF POLIOVIRUS PROTEASE 2A, The Journal of biological chemistry, 272(19), 1997, pp. 12683-12691
The inducible expression of poliovirus protease 2A (2A(pro)) blocks th
e growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A number of yeast colonies that
grow after 2A(pro) induction have been isolated. The majority of these
clones express 2A(pro) to control levels, suggesting that their abili
ty to divide is not due to the loss of 2A(pro) gene inducibility. The
sequences of the 2A(pro) genes isolated from 22 clones were determined
. Most of the 2A(pro) sequences from these colonies contain point muta
tions in the poliovirus protease. The different variant protease seque
nces were transferred to an infectious poliovirus cDNA clone. Translat
ion of genomic RNA obtained from these poliovirus mutants in cell-free
systems revealed that some of them had defects in their ability to cl
eave P1-2A in cis. In addition, several of these variants cleaved the
translation initiation factor eIF-4G inefficiently. Transfection of th
e RNA generated from the full-length poliovirus genomes mutated in 2A(
pro) yielded five viable polioviruses with a small plaque phenotype. T
hese five polioviruses efficiently cleaved p220 but showed defects in
viral protein synthesis, transactivation of a leader-luciferase mRNA,
and 3CD cleavage to 3C' and 3D'. All 2A(pro) mutant sequences, includi
ng those that did not yield viable viruses, were cloned in pTM1 vector
under a T7 promoter. Only the 2A(pro) variants that have activity to
cleave 3CD produced viable poliovirus. Our findings indicate that S. c
erevisiae represents a useful system for obtaining poliovirus 2A(pro)
variants that may provide further insight into the role of this protea
se during the poliovirus replication cycle.