title: Hepatitis C virus-like particle budding: role of the core protein and importance of its Asp111.
abstract: In the absence of a hepatitis C virus (HCV) culture system, the use of a Semliki Forest virus replicon expressing genes encoding HCV structural proteins that assemble into HCV-like particles provides an opportunity to study HCV morphogenesis. Using this system, we showed that the HCV core protein constitutes the budding apparatus of the virus and that its targeting to the endoplasmic reticulum by means of the signal sequence of E1 protein is essential for budding. In addition, the aspartic acid at position 111 in the HCV core protein sequence was found to be crucial for virus assembly, demonstrating the usefulness of this system for mapping amino acids critical to HCV morphogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Virologie, Faculté de Médecine et Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, 2 bis Boulevard Tonnellé, 37032 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hourioux
authors.forename: Denys
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.forename: Malika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ait-Goughoulte
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moreau
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Trassard
authors.forename: Pierre-Yves
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Sizaret
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dubois
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roingeard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001224:Aspartic Acid; D002460:Cell Line; D006224:Cricetinae; D018274:Electroporation; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000502:physiology*; D012672:Semliki forest virus / Q000235:genetics; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014771:Virion / Q000502:physiology*; D019065:Virus Assembly
chemical_list: D014758:Viral Core Proteins; D001224:Aspartic Acid