Fig. 2.

Arenavirus replication and transcription. The virus enters the cell via endosomal route. The viral uncoating in cytoplasm releases the viral genome. NP and L mRNAs (in the figure is shown the replication and transcription of S segment) are transcribed into genomic complementary mRNA, whereas the GP and Z are not translated from genomic species, but rather from genomic sense mRNAs that are transcribed using the corresponding antigenome RNA species, which also function as replicative intermediates. The primary transcription initiated at the genome promoter located at the genome 3′-end results in synthesis of NP mRNA from the S. Viral mRNA has a cap structure at the 5′-ends (green circle). Subsequently the virus polymerase can adopt a replicase mode and moves across of the IGR to generate a copy of the full-length antigenome RNA. This antigenome RNA will serve as template for the synthesis of the GP mRNA. The antigenome species serve also as templates for the amplification of the corresponding genome RNA species or replication. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of the article.)