An in vivo study of the replication origin in the influenza virus complementary RNA.

A new in vivo replication system for influenza virus was developed by using the clone 76 cell line, in which the viral RNA polymerase and nucleoprotein genes can be expressed in response to dexamethasone. The chimeric NS-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) RNAs in the sense and antisense orientations positioned between the 5'- and 3'-terminal sequences of the influenza virus RNA segment 8 can be replicated [both genomic RNA (vRNA) and complementary RNA (cRNA) were transcribed] in the clone 76 cells treated with dexamethasone. These data indicate that three RNA polymerase proteins (PB1, PB2, and PA) and nucleoprotein are sufficient for replication of the influenza virus genome. Analysis of mutant cRNAs containing a base-substitution or a deletion in the 3'-conserved terminal 13 nucleotides revealed that important cis elements in the cRNA for vRNA synthesis reside at positions 2, 3, and 7 to 13 nucleotides from the 3'-end.