title: Deacylation of influenza virus hemagglutinin does not affect the kinetics of low pH induced membrane fusion.
abstract: The relevance of palmitoylation of cysteine residues of influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) for the HA-mediated membrane fusion triggered at low pH is investigated. Either wild-type HA (subtype H7) or mutant HA devoid of fatty acids were expressed in insect cells. The kinetics as well as the extent of fusion of HA-expressing cells with human erythrocyte ghosts were measured by a membrane mixing assay. Fusion was measured continuously at different pH by fluorescence dequenching of the lipid-like fluorophore R18 initially incorporated into the erythrocyte membrane. No significant difference between fusion of wild-type and mutant HA expressing cells with ghosts could be detected showing that deacylation does affect neither the extent nor the kinetics of fusion.
authors: Institut für Biologie und Biophysik, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakulrät I. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Schroth
authors: H C
authors: HC
authors: Philipp
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Veit
authors: M F
authors: MF
authors: Schmidt
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Herrmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016367:Baculoviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003640:Dealkylation; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D006388:Hemagglutinins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D009980:Influenza A virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D007313:Insecta; D007700:Kinetics; D008561:Membrane Fusion / Q000502:physiology*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D006388:Hemagglutinins