Induction of Alternatively Spliced Spermidine/Spermine N1-Acetyltransferase mRNA in the Human Kidney Cells Infected by Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis and Tick-Borne Encephalitis Viruses

• Published in: Virology (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 297; no. 2; pp. 163 - 171
• Main Authors: Nikiforova, Natalia N., Velikodvorskaja, Tatyana V., Kachko, Alla V., Nikolaev, Lev G., Monastyrskaya, Galina S., Lukyanov, Sergey A., Konovalova, Svetlana N., Protopopova, Elena V., Svyatchenko, Victor A., Kiselev, Nikolai N., Loktev, Valery B., Sverdlov, Eugene D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 05-06-2002
• Subjects: Acetyltransferases - biosynthesis; Acetyltransferases - chemistry; Acetyltransferases - genetics; alphavirus; Alternative Splicing; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; Cell Line; Encephalitis Virus, Venezuelan Equine - pathogenicity; Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne - pathogenicity; Enzyme Induction; flavivirus; Humans; Kidney - cytology; Molecular Sequence Data; RNA, Messenger - genetics; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Sequence Analysis, DNA; spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase; tick-borne encephalitis; Venezuelan equine encephalitis; tick-borne encephalitis; spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase; alphavirus; alternative splicing; Venezuelan equine encephalitis; flavivirus
• ISSN: 0042-6822; 1096-0341
• DOI: 10.1006/viro.2002.1456

293 and RH cells derived from human embryo kidney were infected by Venezuelan equine encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitis viruses and cDNA libraries representing cellular mRNAs induced or suppressed due to the infection were prepared using suppressive subtractive hybridization. Among the up-regulated clones the RT-PCR and Northern analyses revealed an unusual transcript of the spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SSAT) gene that was shown to be an alternatively spliced form containing an additional 110-bp exon. The alternatively spliced transcript is polyadenylated and can be expected to yield only a truncated 71 amino acid polypeptide. This first evidence of the host gene alternatively spliced mRNA induction by RNA viruses raises the questions of its biological role, regulation mechanisms of alternative splicing, and significance for the virus life cycle.