Study on the function of NS2 protein of influenza A virus at the assembly step of the genomic RNA segments.

甲型流感病毒基因组由8个负极性RNA片段组成。流感病毒粒子表达感染性需要一组8个RNA片段。然而，将RNA片段组装或包装成感染性颗粒的机制尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们利用反向遗传系统证明了每个RNA片段都包含病毒粒子组装步骤中相互区分的识别信号序列。此外，通过将重组流感病毒样基因组RNA与PA基因或PB2基因衍生的缺陷干扰RNA （Dl）共转染的基因表达系统，我们发现基因组RNA片段3'端13 ~ 19个核苷酸残基参与片段识别信号。

The genome of influenza A virus consists of eight RNA segments of negative polarity. A set of eight RNA segments is required for an influenza virus particle to express infectivity. However, the mechanism of assembly or packaging of the RNA segments into an infectious particle remains unknown. In the present study using the reverse genetic system, we demonstrated that each RNA segment contained the recognition signal sequences for discriminate each other in the step of virion assembly.Moreover, by the gene expression system in which the recombinant influenza virus like genome RNA was cotransfected with the defective interfering (Dl) RNA derived from the PA gene or the PB2 gene, we identified that the nucleotide residues from 13 to 19 in the 3' terminal region of genome RNA segment were involved in the segment recognition signal.