Recognition mechanism of the RNA segments of influenza virus by the NS2 protein at the virion assembly step.

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In the present research using NS2 mutant of influenza virus that produces a large amount of DI particles, we have studied (1) whether genomic RNA packaging into virion is suppressed by DI-RNA species, (2) whether there is a signal sequence which can recognize each RNA segment ; and (3) what is the function of NS2 protein during assembly of genome RNA segments.We found (1) that PA DI-RNA species selectively suppressed the incorporation of only the progenitor PA gene, (2) that 7 and 3 nucleotides at the 3' and 5' terminal ends, respectively, in the segment-specific noncoding regions functioned as the recognition signals of each RNA segment, and (3) that NS2 protein down-regulated the DI-RNA packaging, resulting in preferential incorporation of normal genomic RNAs.