title: Identification of a functional motif in the AqRV NS26 protein required for enhancing the fusogenic activity of FAST protein NS16.
abstract: Aquareoviruses AqRVs have a close relationship with orthoreoviruses. However, they contain an additional genome segment, S11, which encodes nonstructural protein NS26. We previously showed that NS26 can enhance the fusogenic activity of the fusion-associated small transmembrane FAST protein NS16 from AqRV. In this study, a TLPK motif in NS26 was identified as being important for the enhancement. When the TLPK motif was deleted from NS26, the enhanced efficiency of the NS16-mediated cellcell fusion was significantly impaired. Further mutational analysis showed that the lysine K residue in the TLPK motif was critical for the enhancement. Additionally, deletion of the TLPK motif prevented NS26 from interacting with lysosomes. These findings suggested that the TLPK motif is important for NS26 to enhance the fusogenic activity of NS16, and NS26 may utilize the lysosome to benefit the fusion process.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.|State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Qingxiu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.|State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Liming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.|State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Shicui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Fuxian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D002459:Cell Fusion; D002460:Cell Line; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D054730:Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs; D012087:Reoviridae / Q000502:physiology*; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D053586:Virus Internalization
chemical_list: D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins