Intracellular localization of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus nucleocapsid protein: absence of nucleolar accumulation during infection and after expression as a recombinant protein in vero cells.
The nucleocapsid (N) protein of several members within the order Nidovirales localizes to the nucleolus during infection and after transfection of cells with N genes. However, confocal microscopy of N protein localization in Vero cells infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) or transfected with the SARS-CoV N gene failed to show the presence of N in the nucleoplasm or nucleolus. Amino acids 369 to 389, which contain putative nuclear localization signal (NLS) and nucleolar localization signal motifs, failed to restore nuclear localization to an NLS-minus mutant Rev protein. These data indicate that nuclear localization is not a conserved property among all nidoviruses.
Rowland
Raymond R R
RR
Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, 66506, USA. browland@vet.ksu.edu
Chauhan
Vinita
V
Fang
Ying
Y
Pekosz
Andrew
A
Kerrigan
Maureen
M
Burton
Miriam D
MD
D020816:Amino Acid Motifs / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D000086462:Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019913:Nuclear Localization Signals / Q000378:metabolism; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000502:physiology*; D014709:Vero Cells / Q000378:metabolism*
D000086462:Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins; D019913:Nuclear Localization Signals; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins