Identification and analysis of a putative origin of DNA replication in the Choristoneura fumiferana multinucleocapsid nuclear polyhedrosis virus genome.

A recombinant plasmid containing the Choristoneura fumiferana multinucleocapsid nuclear polyhedrosis virus (CfMNPV) HindIII R fragment (m.u. 2.2-3.9) was shown to undergo CfMNPV infection-dependent DNA replication in Cf-124T cells. Replication of this DNA sequence was detectable by 24 hr p.i. and did not appear to have resulted as a consequence of recombination with the virus genome. Replication was inhibited by mimosine, an inhibitor of eukaryotic DNA replication. These data suggest that HindIII R of CfMNPV DNA contains an origin of DNA replication which we call ori1. HindIII R contains five GC-rich and three AT-rich regions and a 0.9-kb homologous repeat region 1 (hr1). Two short 440- and 740-bp contiguous sequences at the right end of the HindIII R fragment separately exhibited limited ori function. HindIII R subfragments with optimal ori activity contained a cluster of repeated and inverted sequences including nine copies of a 50-bp homologous repeat sequence (hr1a to hr1i) within hr1. The CfMNPV hr1 sequence was somewhat homologous with the homologous repeat (hr) of the putative Autographa californica MNPV (AcMNPV) replication origins. HindIII Y, another CfMNPV DNA fragment containing an hr sequence, hr3, also supported infection-dependent DNA replication, suggesting that it too contains an ori. Although replication of a putative AcMNPV origin (HindIII Q) was detectable in CfMNPV-infected Cf-124T cells, replication of CfMNPV HindIII R was not detectable in AcMNPV-infected Spodoptera frugiperda cells.