Influenza A virus mutants expressing C-terminally deleted forms of the NS1 protein (NS1-81 and NS1-110) were generated by plasmid rescue. These viruses were temperature sensitive and showed a small plaque size at the permissive temperature. The accumulation of virion RNA in mutant virus-infected cells was reduced at the restrictive temperature, while the accumulation of cRNA or mRNA was not affected, indicating that the NS1 protein is involved in the control of transcription versus replication processes in the infection. The synthesis and accumulation of late virus proteins were reduced in NS1-81 mutant-infected cells at the permissive temperature and were essentially abolished for both viruses at the restrictive temperature, while synthesis and accumulation of nucleoprotein (NP) were unaffected. Probably as a consequence, the nucleocytoplasmic export of virus NP was strongly inhibited at the restrictive temperature. These results indicate that the NS1 protein is essential for nuclear and cytoplasmic steps during the virus cycle.The genome of influenza A virus consists of eight singlestranded RNA molecules of negative polarity associated with nucleoprotein (NP) molecules and the polymerase in the form of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes (for reviews, see references 40, 43, and 66). The first step in viral gene expression is primary transcription from the incoming viral RNPs (28). The expression of virus proteins, at least NP, leads to the shift from transcription to the synthesis of complete positive-polarity RNAs (cRNAs) (29, 73), which serve as templates for the synthesis of virion RNAs (vRNAs). Transcription and replication of vRNA take place in the nucleus of the infected cell (30,34) and require at least the activity of the three subunits of the polymerase (PB1, PB2, and PA) and the NP (9,31,38,55,64). The syntheses of the various vRNAs are not simultaneous during the infection cycle. Thus, NS1 or NP vRNAs are replicated earlier than M1 or hemagglutinin (HA) vRNAs (72). Since transcription is coupled to replication at the beginning of vRNA synthesis, the NS1 protein and NP are expressed earlier than the M1 protein and HA (72). However, later in the process of vRNA synthesis, transcription is discontinued and viral protein synthesis rests on previously synthesized mRNAs (72). In the course of the infection, viral gene expression takes over the cell machinery, leading to the shutoff phenomenon. Several alterations induced by the virus in the infected cell may be connected to shutoff: nuclear retention and degradation of polymerase II transcripts in the nucleus (35), inhibition of cellular pre-mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation (56, 74), cytoplasmic degradation of preexisting cellular mRNAs (3, 32), and preferential utilization of the translation machinery by the virus-specific mRNAs (36).Influenza A virus encodes a nonstructural protein (NS1) that is translated from the unspliced transcript of segment 8 (33, 44). NS1 is a nuclear protein, both in the infected cell (5, 41) and when expressed from cDNA (23,45,6...