The equine herpesvirus 1 glycoprotein gp21/22a, the herpes simplex virus type 1 gM homolog, is involved in virus penetration and cell-to-cell spread of virions.
Experiments to analyze the function of the equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) glycoprotein gM homolog were conducted. To this end, an Rk13 cell line (TCgM) that stably expressed EHV-1 gM was constructed. Proteins with apparent M(r)s of 46,000 to 48,000 and 50,000 to 55,000 were detected in TCgM cells with specific anti-gM antibodies, and the gM protein pattern was indistinguishable from that in cells infected with EHV-1 strain RacL11. A viral mutant (L11deltagM) bearing an Escherichia coli lacZ gene inserted into the EHV-1 strain RacL11 gM gene (open reading frame 52) was purified, and cells infected with L11deltagM did not contain detectable gM. L11deltagM exhibited approximately 100-fold lower titers and a more than 2-fold reduction in plaque size relative to wild-type EHV-1 when grown and titrated on noncomplementing cells. Viral titers were reduced only 10-fold when L11deltagM was grown on the complementing cell line TCgM and titrated on noncomplementing cells. L11deltagM also exhibited slower penetration kinetics compared with those of the parental EHV-1 RacL11. It is concluded that EHV-1 gM plays important roles in the penetration of virus into the target cell and in spread of EHV-1 from cell to cell.
Osterrieder
N
N
Institute for Medical Microbiology, Infectious and Epidemic Diseases, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany. klaus.osterrieder@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Neubauer
A
A
Brandmuller
C
C
Braun
B
B
Kaaden
O R
OR
Baines
J D
JD
D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D004861:Herpesvirus 1, Equid / Q000502:physiology*; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014771:Virion / Q000502:physiology*
D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins