Frontiers in Veterinary Science (Aug 2020)
Characterization of Nucleocytoplasmic Shuttling of Pseudorabies Virus Protein UL46
Abstract
Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is the etiological agent of Aujeszky's disease, which has caused severe economic loss in China since its re-emergence in 2011. UL46, a late gene of herpesvirus, codes for the abundant but non-essential viral phosphoproteins 11 and 12 (VP11/12). In this study, VP11/12 was found to localize inside both the nucleus and cytoplasm. The nuclear localization signal (NLS) of VP11/12 was identified as 3RRARGTRRASWKDASR18. Further research identified α5 and α7 to be the receptors for NLS and the chromosome region maintenance 1 (CRM1) to be the receptor for the nuclear export signal. Moreover, we found that PRV VP11/12 interacts with EP0 and the stimulator of interferon genes protein (STING), whereas the NLS of VP11/12 is the important part for VP11/12 to interact with UL48. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide reliable evidence verifying the nuclear localization of VP11/12 and its role as an additional shuttling tegument protein for PRV. In addition, this is also the first study to elucidate the interactions between PRV VP11/12 and EP0 as well as between PRV VP11/12 and STING, while identifying the precise interaction sites of PRV VP11/12 and VP16.
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