Epstein-Barr virus transforming protein LMP1 plays a critical role in virus production.
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), which is critical for EBV-induced B-cell transformation, is also abundantly expressed during the lytic cycle of viral replication. However, the biological significance of this strong LMP1 induction remains unknown. We engineered a bacterial artificial chromosome clone containing the entire genome of Akata strain EBV to specifically disrupt the LMP1 gene. Akata cell clones harboring the episomes of LMP1-deleted EBV were established, and the effect of LMP1 loss on virus production was investigated. We found that the degree of viral DNA amplification and the expression levels of viral late gene products were unaffected by LMP1 loss, demonstrating that the LMP1-deleted EBV entered the lytic replication cycle as efficiently as the wild-type counterpart. This was confirmed by our electron microscopic observation that nucleocapsid formation inside nuclei occurred even in the absence of LMP1. By contrast, loss of LMP1 severely impaired virus release into culture supernatants, resulting in poor infection efficiency. The expression of truncated LMP1 in Akata cells harboring LMP1-deleted EBV rescued the virus release into the culture supernatant and the infectivity, and full-length LMP1 partially rescued the infectivity. These results indicate that inducible expression of LMP1 during the viral lytic cycle plays a critical role in virus production.
Ahsan
Nazmul
N
Department of Tumor Virology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0815, Japan.
Kanda
Teru
T
Nagashima
Kazuo
K
Takada
Kenzo
K
D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000821:virology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000502:physiology*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D014771:Virion / Q000648:ultrastructure; D019065:Virus Assembly; D014779:Virus Replication
D004279:DNA, Viral; C037662:EBV-associated membrane antigen, Epstein-Barr virus; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins