Coronavirus reverse genetic systems: Infectious clones and replicons

Coronaviruses (CoVs) infect humans and many animal species, and are associated with respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and central nervous system diseases. The large size of the CoV genome and the instability of some CoV replicase gene sequences during its propagation in bacteria, represent serious obst...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Almazán, Fernando, Solá Gurpegui, Isabel, Zúñiga Lucas, Sonia, Márquez-Jurado, Silvia, Morales, Lucía, Becares, Martina, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2014
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/204782
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/204782
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Coronavirus
Reverse genetics
Infectious clones
Replicons
Description
Summary:Coronaviruses (CoVs) infect humans and many animal species, and are associated with respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and central nervous system diseases. The large size of the CoV genome and the instability of some CoV replicase gene sequences during its propagation in bacteria, represent serious obstacles for the development of reverse genetic systems similar to those used for smaller positive sense RNA viruses. To overcome these limitations, several alternatives to more conventional plasmid-based approaches have been established in the last 13 years. In this report, we briefly review and discuss the different reverse genetic systems developed for CoVs, paying special attention to the severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV).