Role of 3'-end sequences in infectivity of poliovirus transcripts made in vitro.

It has been shown by van der Werf et al. (S. van der Werf, J. Bradley, E. Wimmer, F. W. Studier, and J. Dunn, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83:2330-2334, 1986) that in vitro synthesis of poliovirus RNA by T7 RNA polymerase gives rise to infectious RNA molecules; however, these molecules are only 5% as infectious as RNA isolated from virions. A plasmid, T7D-polio, was constructed that allows the in vitro synthesis of full-length RNA molecules with two additional guanine residues at the 5' end. However, T7D-polio differed from the construct of van der Werf et al. in that RNA transcribed from T7D-polio has an authentic 3' end, ending with only a polyadenine nucleotide sequence. Transfection of these RNA molecules into mammalian cells produced wild-type poliovirus with an efficiency similar to that of virion RNA. The use of this vector in the characterization of viral mutants in vivo and in vitro is discussed.