title: Heliothis zea nudivirus 1 gene hhi1 induces apoptosis which is blocked by the Hz-iap2 gene and a noncoding gene, pag1.
abstract: Heliothis zea nudivirus 1 (HzNV-1 or Hz-1 virus), previously regarded as a nonoccluded baculovirus, recently has been placed in the Nudivirus genus. This virus generates HzNV-1 HindIII-I 1 (hhi1) and many other transcripts during productive viral infection; during latent viral infection, however, persistency-associated gene 1 (pag1) is the only gene expressed. In this report, we used transient expression assays to show that hhi1 can trigger strong apoptosis in transfected cells, which can be blocked, at least partially, by the inhibitor of apoptosis genes Autographa californica iap2 (Ac-iap2) and H. zea iap2 (Hz-iap2). In addition to these two genes, unexpectedly, pag1, which encodes a noncoding RNA with no detectable protein product, was found to efficiently suppress hhi1-induced apoptosis. The assay of pro-Sf-caspase-1 processing by hhi1 transfection did not detect the small P12 subunit at any of the time intervals tested, suggesting that hhi1 of HzNV-1 induces apoptosis through alternative caspase pathways.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, No. 12, Section 2, Academia Road, Taipei 115, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yueh-Lung
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Carol P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Catherine Y Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Song-Tay
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hsiao-Ping
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yu-Chan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D017931:DNA Primers; D005814:Genes, Viral; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017924:Nucleopolyhedroviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018411:Spodoptera
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins