title: African swine fever virus protein p17 is essential for the progression of viral membrane precursors toward icosahedral intermediates.
abstract: The first morphological evidence of African swine fever virus (ASFV) assembly is the appearance of precursor viral membranes, thought to derive from the endoplasmic reticulum, within the assembly sites. We have shown previously that protein p54, a viral structural integral membrane protein, is essential for the generation of the viral precursor membranes. In this report, we study the role of protein p17, an abundant transmembrane protein localized at the viral internal envelope, in these processes. Using an inducible virus for this protein, we show that p17 is essential for virus viability and that its repression blocks the proteolytic processing of polyproteins pp220 and pp62. Electron microscopy analyses demonstrate that when the infection occurs under restrictive conditions, viral morphogenesis is blocked at an early stage, immediately posterior to the formation of the viral precursor membranes, indicating that protein p17 is required to allow their progression toward icosahedral particles. Thus, the absence of this protein leads to an accumulation of these precursors and to the delocalization of the major components of the capsid and core shell domains. The study of ultrathin serial sections from cells infected with BA71V or the inducible virus under permissive conditions revealed the presence of large helicoidal structures from which immature particles are produced, suggesting that these helicoidal structures represent a previously undetected viral intermediate.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Suárez
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez-Berzal
authors.forename: Germán
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Andrés
authors.forename: María L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Salas
authors.forename: Javier M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000358:African Swine Fever Virus / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D019556:COS Cells; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000378:metabolism; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D016253:Microscopy, Immunoelectron; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D014709:Vero Cells; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D014771:Virion / Q000648:ultrastructure; D019065:Virus Assembly
chemical_list: D015686:Gene Products, env; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins; C092027:p17 protein, African swine fever virus