title: The hepatitis B virus precore protein is retrotransported from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to cytosol through the ER-associated degradation pathway.
abstract: The hepatitis B virus precore protein is closely related to the nucleocapsid core protein but is processed distinctly in the cell and plays a different role in the viral cycle. Precore is addressed to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through a signal peptide, and the form present in the ER is the P22 protein. P22 is then cleaved in its C-terminal part to be secreted as HBe antigen. In addition, a cytosolic form of 22 kDa less characterized has been observed. Precore gene was shown to be implicated in viral persistence, but until now, the actual protein species involved has not been determined. Our work focuses on the cytosolic form of precore. Using human cells expressing precore and a convenient fractionation assay, we demonstrated that the cytosolic form is identical to the ER form and retrotransported in the cytoplasm through the ER-associated degradation pathway. This cellular machinery translocates misfolded proteins to the cytoplasm, where they are ubiquitinated on lysine residues and degraded by proteasome. We showed that precore escapes proteasome due to its low lysine content and accumulates in the cytosol. The role of this retrotransport was investigated. In the presence of precore, we found a specific redistribution of the Grp78/BiP chaperone protein to cytosol and demonstrated a specific interaction between precore and Grp78/BiP. Altogether, these data support the idea that the hepatitis B virus develops a strategy to take advantage of the ER-associated degradation pathway, allowing distinct subcellular localization and probably distinct roles for the viral precore protein.
authors.affiliation: Université Versailles St-Quentin/UMR 8159 CNRS/Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Laboratoire de Génétique et Biologie Cellulaire, 45 avenue des Etats-Unis, 7803/5 Versailles, France.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duriez
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rossignol
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sitterlin
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D002460:Cell Line; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D003600:Cytosol / Q000378:metabolism*; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum / Q000378:metabolism*; D000091342:Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000378:metabolism; D011485:Protein Binding; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D021381:Protein Transport; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000091342:Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP; C000717247:HSPA5 protein, human; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D014758:Viral Core Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; C534392:p22 core protein, hepatitis B virus