Characterization of a Replicating and Packaged Defective RNA of Avian Coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus

The Beaudette strain of IBV was passaged 16 times in chick kidney cells. Total cellular RNA was analyzed by Northern hybridization and was probed with 32 P-labeled cDNA probes corresponding to the first 2 kb of the 5′ end of the genome, but excluding the leader, and to the last 1.8 kb of the 3′ end of the genome. A new, defective IBV RNA species (CD-91) was detected at passage 6. The defective RNA, present in total cell extract RNA and in oligo-(dT) 30 -selected RNA from passage 15, was amplified by the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to give four fragments. The oligonucleotides used were selected such that CD-91 RNA, but not the genomic RNA, would be amplified. Cloning and sequencing of the PCR products showed that CD-91 comprises 9.1 kb and has three regions of the genome. It contains 1133 nucleotides from the 5′ end of the genome, 6322 from gene 1b corresponding to position 12,423 to 18,744 in the IBV genome, and 1626 from the 3′ end of the genome. At position 749 one nucleotide, an adenine residue, was absent from CD-91 RNA. By Northern hybridization CD-91 RNA was detected in virions in higher amounts than the subgenomic mRNAs.