title: Glycosylation of CM2 is important for efficient replication of influenza C virus.
abstract: CM2 is the second membrane protein of influenza C virus and possesses a conserved motif for N-glycosylation. To investigate the role(s) of CM2 glycosylation in the virus replication, we generated rN11A, a recombinant influenza C virus lacking the glycosylation site. The rN11A virus grew less efficiently than the wild-type (WT) virus, although the biochemical characteristics of the mutant CM2 were similar to those of authentic CM2. The amount of the genome (GFP-vRNA) in the CM2-N11A-virus-like particles (VLPs) was 13% of that found in WT-VLPs. The incoming GFP-vRNA was less efficiently transported to the nucleus in CM2-N11A-VLP-infected cells than WT-VLP-infected cells, leading to the reduced reporter gene expression in CM2-N11A-VLP-infected cells. Thus the glycosylation of CM2 is required for efficient replication of influenza C virus, and the obtained findings confirmed and extended the previous observation that CM2 is involved in the genome packaging and uncoating processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Kanazawa Medical University School of Medicine, 1-1 Daigaku, Uchinada, Ishikawa 920-0293, Japan.
authors.forename: Takako
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okuwa
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Muraki
authors.forename: Toshiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Himeda
authors.forename: Yoshiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohara
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000821:virology; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D015870:Gene Expression; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006031:Glycosylation; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D006801:Humans; D009982:Gammainfluenzavirus / Q000502:physiology*; D009154:Mutation; D021381:Protein Transport; D059386:Reverse Genetics; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D019065:Virus Assembly / Q000235:genetics*; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C090877:CM2 protein, Influenza C virus; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins