scholarly journals Insertion and deletion analyses identify regions of non-structural protein 5A of Hepatitis C virus that are dispensable for viral genome replication

2006 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuanghu Liu ◽  
Israrul H. Ansari ◽  
Subash C. Das ◽  
Asit K. Pattnaik

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) non-structural protein 5A (NS5A) plays an essential role in viral genome replication. A series of transposon-mediated insertion mutants and deletion mutants of NS5A was used to examine the colony-forming ability of HCV subgenomic replicons encoding the mutant proteins. The results reveal that two regions of NS5A can tolerate insertions: one spanning residues 240–314, which contain the interferon sensitivity-determining region (ISDR), and the other spanning residues 349–417 at the carboxy terminus. The majority of these sites also tolerated insertion of enhanced green fluorescent protein. Furthermore, replicons encoding NS5A with deletions in ISDR or in the carboxy-terminal regions were replication-competent, indicating that these regions of NS5A are not necessary for replication. Taken together, the results suggest that the central region spanning the ISDR and the carboxy-terminal region of the molecule are dispensable for the functions of NS5A in viral genome replication.

2003 ◽  
Vol 278 (50) ◽  
pp. 50301-50308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Miyanari ◽  
Makoto Hijikata ◽  
Masashi Yamaji ◽  
Masahiro Hosaka ◽  
Hitoshi Takahashi ◽  
...  

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 172
Author(s):  
Laura Riva ◽  
Corentin Spriet ◽  
Nicolas Barois ◽  
Costin-Ioan Popescu ◽  
Jean Dubuisson ◽  
...  

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) life cycle is a tightly regulated process, during which structural and non-structural proteins cooperate. However, the interplay between HCV proteins during genomic RNA replication and progeny virion assembly is not completely understood. Here, we studied the dynamics and intracellular localization of non-structural 5A protein (NS5A), which is a protein involved both in genome replication and encapsidation. An NS5A-eGFP (enhanced green fluorescent protein) tagged version of the strain JFH-1-derived wild-type HCV was compared to the corresponding assembly-deficient viruses Δcore, NS5A basic cluster 352–533 mutant (BCM), and serine cluster 451 + 454 + 457 mutant (SC). These analyses highlighted an increase of NS5A motility when the viral protein core was lacking. Although to a lesser extent, NS5A motility was also increased in the BCM virus, which is characterized by a lack of interaction of NS5A with the viral RNA, impairing HCV genome encapsidation. This observation suggests that the more static NS5A population is mainly involved in viral assembly rather than in RNA replication. Finally, NS4B exhibited a reduced co-localization with NS5A and lipid droplets for both Δcore and SC mutants, which is characterized by the absence of interaction of NS5A with core. This observation strongly suggests that NS5A is involved in targeting NS4B to lipid droplets (LDs). In summary, this work contributes to a better understanding of the interplay between HCV proteins during the viral life cycle.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. e12826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaomin Sun ◽  
Cara T. Pager ◽  
Guangxiang Luo ◽  
Peter Sarnow ◽  
Jamie H. D. Cate

2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (10) ◽  
pp. 5137-5147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiromichi Hara ◽  
Hideki Aizaki ◽  
Mami Matsuda ◽  
Fumiko Shinkai-Ouchi ◽  
Yasushi Inoue ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Persistent infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver diseases. The aim of this study was to identify host cell factor(s) participating in the HCV replication complex (RC) and to clarify the regulatory mechanisms of viral genome replication dependent on the host-derived factor(s) identified. By comparative proteome analysis of RC-rich membrane fractions and subsequent gene silencing mediated by RNA interference, we identified several candidates for RC components involved in HCV replication. We found that one of these candidates, creatine kinase B (CKB), a key ATP-generating enzyme that regulates ATP in subcellular compartments of nonmuscle cells, is important for efficient replication of the HCV genome and propagation of infectious virus. CKB interacts with HCV NS4A protein and forms a complex with NS3-4A, which possesses multiple enzyme activities. CKB upregulates both NS3-4A-mediated unwinding of RNA and DNA in vitro and replicase activity in permeabilized HCV replicating cells. Our results support a model in which recruitment of CKB to the HCV RC compartment, which has high and fluctuating energy demands, through its interaction with NS4A is important for efficient replication of the viral genome. The CKB-NS4A association is a potential target for the development of a new type of antiviral therapeutic strategy.


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (14) ◽  
pp. 7400-7409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darius Moradpour ◽  
Matthew J. Evans ◽  
Rainer Gosert ◽  
Zhenghong Yuan ◽  
Hubert E. Blum ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicates its genome in a membrane-associated replication complex, composed of viral proteins, replicating RNA and altered cellular membranes. We describe here HCV replicons that allow the direct visualization of functional HCV replication complexes. Viable replicons selected from a library of Tn7-mediated random insertions in the coding sequence of nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) allowed the identification of two sites near the NS5A C terminus that tolerated insertion of heterologous sequences. Replicons encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) at these locations were only moderately impaired for HCV RNA replication. Expression of the NS5A-GFP fusion protein could be demonstrated by immunoblot, indicating that the GFP was retained during RNA replication and did not interfere with HCV polyprotein processing. More importantly, expression levels were robust enough to allow direct visualization of the fusion protein by fluorescence microscopy. NS5A-GFP appeared as brightly fluorescing dot-like structures in the cytoplasm. By confocal laser scanning microscopy, NS5A-GFP colocalized with other HCV nonstructural proteins and nascent viral RNA, indicating that the dot-like structures, identified as membranous webs by electron microscopy, represent functional HCV replication complexes. These findings reveal an unexpected flexibility of the C-terminal domain of NS5A and provide tools for studying the formation and turnover of HCV replication complexes in living cells.


2006 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. McCormick ◽  
Sophie Maucourant ◽  
Stephen Griffin ◽  
David J. Rowlands ◽  
Mark Harris

Knowledge of how hepatitis C virus (HCV) proteins associate with components of the host cell to form a functional replication complex is still limited. To address this issue, HCV replicon constructs were generated where either green fluorescent protein (GFP) or the Propionibacterium shermanii transcarboxylase domain (PSTCD) was introduced into the NS5A coding region. Insertion of both GFP and PSTCD was tolerated well, allowing formation of stable replicon-containing cell lines that contained viral protein and transcript levels that were comparable to those of an unmodified parental replicon. Cell lines generated from the GFP-tagged NS5A replicon allowed live-cell visualization of the location of NS5A. Cell lines generated from the PSTCD-tagged replicons allowed rapid and efficient precipitation of the PSTCD-tagged NS5A, as well as other HCV non-structural proteins, using streptavidin-coated magnetic beads. Both replicons represent useful tools that offer different but complementary ways of examining replication-complex formation in cells.


2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (11) ◽  
pp. 2761-2766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingmin Ji ◽  
Andrea Glaser ◽  
Marion Wernli ◽  
Jan Martin Berke ◽  
Darius Moradpour ◽  
...  

Viruses have evolved strategies to overcome the antiviral effects of the host at different levels. Besides specific defence mechanisms, the host responds to viral infection via the interferon pathway and also by RNA interference (RNAi). However, several viruses have been identified that suppress RNAi. We addressed the question of whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) suppresses RNAi, using cell lines constitutively expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) and inducibly expressing HCV proteins. It was found that short interfering RNA-mediated GFP gene silencing was inhibited when the entire HCV polyprotein was expressed. Further studies showed that HCV structural proteins, and in particular envelope protein 2 (E2), were responsible for this inhibition. Co-precipitation assays demonstrated that E2 bound to Argonaute-2 (Ago-2), a member of the RNA-induced silencing complex, RISC. Thus, HCV E2 that interacts with Ago-2 is able to suppress RNAi.


2007 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Haqshenas ◽  
J. M. Mackenzie ◽  
X. Dong ◽  
E. J. Gowans

p7 protein is a small protein encoded by Hepatitis C virus (HCV) that functions as an ion channel in planar lipid bilayers. The function of p7 is vital for the virus life cycle. In this study, the p7 protein of genotype 2a (strain JFH1; the only strain that replicates and produces virus progeny in vitro) was tagged with either an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) or a haemagglutinin (HA) epitope to facilitate tracking of the protein in the intracellular environment. The tagged viral polyprotein was expressed transiently in the cells after transfection with the recombinant RNA transcripts. Confocal microscopy revealed that the tagged p7 protein was localized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) but not associated with mitochondria. Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed the p7 localization data and, moreover, showed that intracellular virus-like particles formed in the cells transfected with the wild-type, but not the recombinant, transcripts. Following a few passages of the transfected cells, the recombinant genome with the HA tag reverted to wild-type and the entire tag was deleted. Therefore, in this study, it has been demonstrated that the p7 protein in the context of the full-length polyprotein encoded by a replication competent genome is only localized to the ER and has a possible role in HCV particle formation.


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