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pubmed:abstractText |
We have constructed deletion mutants of simian virus 40 (SV40) lacking the two tandemly repeated copies or all three copies of the 21-bp repeated sequence located in the origin region. The mutants were viable, but had lower infectivities compared to the wild type. The mutant lacking two copies of the 21-bp repeat grew fairly well indicating that the one copy of the 21-bp repeat it contains is adequate. The other mutant lacking all the three copies of the 21-bp repeat was also viable but grew poorly. The viability of this mutant suggests that the upstream 72-bp repeated sequence compensates, though only partially, for the absence of the 21-bp repeat. The growth deficiencies of the deletion mutants could not be overcome by complementation with temperature-sensitive helper mutants providing either the early or the late functions of the virus, suggesting that the deficiencies lie in both early and late gene expression and/or in replication.
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