The effect of overproduction of nonstructural proteins on alphavirus plus-strand and minus-strand RNA synthesis.

We determined the effect of the overproduction of viral nonstructural proteins on alphavirus plus-strand and minus-strand RNA synthesis. Because alphavirus minus-strand synthesis ceases normally at 3 to 4 hr postinfection and requires continuous protein synthesis [D. L. Sawicki and S. G. Sawicki, J. Virol. 34, 108-118 (1980); D. L. Sawicki, S. G. Sawicki, S. Keranen, and L. Kaariainen, J. Virol. 39, 348-358 (1981a)], we determined if the cessation of minus-strand synthesis was the result of the failure to continue synthesis of viral nonstructural proteins after 3-4 hr postinfection and if the overproduction of viral nonstructural proteins would increase the rate of plus-strand synthesis. Cells infected with ts1, an RNA-positive mutant of Semliki Forest virus (SFV) which overproduced the viral nonstructural proteins and underproduced the viral structural proteins at the nonpermissive temperature, did not cause the synthesis of increased amounts of viral minus strands relative to parental SFV and did not affect the time at which minus-strand synthesis ceased. All four viral nonstructural proteins were synthesized at early and late times after infection in the same relative proportions. The overproduction and the continued synthesis of nonstructural proteins late in infection did not increase the maximal rate of plus-strand synthesis above that in wild-type SFV-infected cells.