The effect of deletion of a conserved 11 nucleotide sequence on mouse hepatitis virus RNA replication

A conserved 11 nt sequence present at near the 3' end of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) genomic RNA binds to host proteins and is important for MHV RNA replication (Yu and Leibowitz, 1995). To better understand the role of this 11 nt sequence in positive-strand MHV RNA replication, we examined whether positive-strand MHV DI RNAs from negative-strand DI RNA transcripts lacking the 11 nt sequence were synthesized in MHV-infected cells. Positive-strand DI RNAs did not accumulate efficiently, indicating that the conserved 11 nt sequence was necessary for positive-strand MHV RNA synthesis.