The N-Terminal Region of the PA Subunit of the RNA Polymerase of Influenza A/HongKong/156/97 (H5N1) Influences Promoter Binding
Open Access
- 7 May 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 4 (5) , e5473
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005473
Abstract
The RNA polymerase of influenza virus is a heterotrimeric complex of PB1, PB2 and PA subunits which cooperate in the transcription and replication of the viral genome. Previous research has shown that the N-terminal region of the PA subunit of influenza A/WSN/33 (H1N1) virus is involved in promoter binding. Here we extend our studies of the influenza RNA polymerase to that of influenza strains A/HongKong/156/97 (H5N1) and A/Vietnam/1194/04 (H5N1). Both H5N1 strains, originally isolated from patients in 1997 and 2004, showed significantly higher polymerase activity compared with two classical human strains, A/WSN/33 (H1N1) and A/NT/60/68 (H3N2) in vitro. This increased polymerase activity correlated with enhanced promoter binding. The N-terminal region of the PA subunit was the major determinant of this enhanced promoter activity. Overall we suggest that the N-terminal region of the PA subunit of two recent H5N1 strains can influence promoter binding and we speculate this may be a factor in their virulence.Keywords
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