%0 Journal Article %A Kohl, Alain %A Bridgen, Anne %A Dunn, Ewan %A Barr, John N. %A Elliott, Richard M. %T Effects of a point mutation in the 3′ end of the S genome segment of naturally occurring and engineered Bunyamwera viruses %D 2003 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 84 %N 4 %P 789-793 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.18963-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X The genome of Bunyamwera virus (BUN) consists of three segments of single-stranded RNA of negative polarity. The smallest segment, S, encodes the N protein and a nonstructural protein called NSs. We recently described a mutant virus (BUNdelNSs) that does not express NSs but overexpresses N and grows to lower titres than wild-type (wt) BUN. Here we report a BUNdelNSs variant that expresses lower levels of N protein and grows to higher titres. Sequencing of the 3′ and 5′ termini of the BUNdelNSs S RNA segment and analysis using a minireplicon system show that the N overexpressing phenotype results from a single nucleotide substitution at position 16 in the 3′ terminus. This mutation could also be detected in wtBUN populations, and was isolated by plaquing a ‘wt’ variant carrying the mutation. This variant was found to express increased N and NSs levels, and grew to lower titres than wtBUN. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.18963-0