Ambisense transcription in negative stranded RNA viruses

image

An ambisens genome is a genome which both nucleic acid strands encode for proteins . This expression strategy is found in four genera of segmented negative stranded RNA viruses: Arenavirus, Phlebovirus, Tospovirus, and Tenuivirus. It depends on solid transcription termination signals to avoid creating dsRNA, a pattern recognized by all cells to trigger antiviral response. All the ambisens negative standed RNA viruses indeed encode a hairpin to stop transcription. Non-segmented negative stranded RNA viruses, and orthomyxoviridae have leaky termination signal, preventing them to use this transcription strategy

.