title: Identification and functional analysis of the putative anti-apoptotic gene iap4 of Spodoptera litura nucleopolyhedrovirus.
abstract: Baculoviruses possess two types of anti-apoptotic genes, p35 and inhibitor of apoptosis (iap). In this study, we cloned a novel IAP family member, Splt-IAP4, from Spodoptera litura nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpltNPV). ScanProsite analysis of Splt-IAP4 amino acid sequence show that it contain a baculovirus IAP repeat (BIR) motif at the N-terminal portion from 18 to 61 amino acid and a Zinc finger RING motif near its C-terminus. Baculovirus IAPs could be divided into five types from IAP1 to IAP5 according to amino acid sequence homology, so the Splt-IAP4 was grouped into IAP4 because of containing a single BIR motif. Alignment of the six IAP4s in sequenced baculovirus genomes indicated that the Splt-IAP4 gene shared 74% amino acid sequence similarity with Spodoptera littoralis NPV (SpliNPV) IAP4 higher than other baculovirus IAP4 proteins, suggesting evolutionary conservation. In transient expression assay, Splt-IAP4 was not able to suppress apoptosis induced by a mutant AcMNPV deficient in p35 (vAcAnh) infection and rescue the mutant virus replication from apoptosis in Sf-9 cells. Cell viabilities analysis showed that Splt-IAP4 could not inhibit or delay the apoptosis of Sf-9 cells induced by vAcAnh infection. In summary, Splt-IAP4 had no anti-apoptotic function during vAcAnh-infected Sf-9 cells.
authors.affiliation: College of Light Industry and Food Science, Zhongkai University of Agiculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. yuqianchina@126.com
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005814:Genes, Viral; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017924:Nucleopolyhedroviruses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D018411:Spodoptera / Q000821:virology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins