scholarly journals Truncation of the cytoplasmic tail of equine infectious anemia virus increases virion production by improving Env cleavage and plasma membrane localization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue-Feng Wang ◽  
Yu-Hong Wang ◽  
Bowen Bai ◽  
Mengmeng Zhang ◽  
Jie Chen ◽  
...  

Envelope glycoproteins (Envs) of lentiviruses harbor unusually long cytoplasmic tails (CTs). Natural CT truncations always occur in vitro and are accompanied by attenuated virulence, but their effects on viral replication have not been fully elucidated. The Env in equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) harbors the longest CT in the lentiviral family, and a truncated CT was observed in a live attenuated vaccine. This study demonstrates that CT truncation significantly increased EIAV production, as determined by comparing the virion yields from EIAV infectious clones in the presence or absence of the CT. A significant increase in a cleaved product from the CT-truncated Env precursor, but not the full-length Env, was observed. We further confirmed that the presence of the CT inhibited the cleavage of the Env precursor and found that a functional domain located at the C-terminus was responsible for this function. Moreover, CT-truncated Env was mainly localized at the plasma membrane (PM), while full-length Env was mainly localized in the cytoplasm. The CT-truncation caused a dramatic reduction in the endocytosis of Env. These results suggest that the CT can modulate the processing and trafficking of EIAV Env and thus regulate EIAV replication. Importance The mature lentivirus envelope glycoprotein (Env) is composed of a surface unit (SU) and a transmembrane unit (TM), which are cleaved products of the Env precursor. After mature Env is heterodimerically formed from the cleavage of the Env precursor, it is trafficked to the plasma membrane (PM) for incorporation and virion assembly. Env harbors a long cytoplasmic tail (CT), which has been increasingly found to play multiple roles in the Env biological cycle. Here, we revealed for the first time that the CT of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) Env inhibits cleavage of the Env precursor. Simultaneously, the CT promoted Env endocytosis, resulting in weakened Env localization at the PM. We also validated that the CT could significantly decrease EIAV production. These findings suggest that the CT regulates the processing and trafficking of EIAV Env to balance virion production.

2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 882-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoping Chen ◽  
Ora A. Weisz ◽  
Donna B. Stolz ◽  
Simon C. Watkins ◽  
Ronald C. Montelaro

ABSTRACT Retrovirus assembly and budding involve a highly dynamic and concerted interaction of viral and cellular proteins. Previous studies have shown that retroviral Gag proteins interact with actin filaments, but the significance of these interactions remains to be defined. Using equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), we now demonstrate differential effects of cellular actin dynamics at distinct stages of retrovirus assembly and budding. First, virion production was reduced when EIAV-infected cells were treated with phallacidin, a cell-permeable reagent that stabilizes actin filaments by slowing down their depolymerization. Confocal microscopy confirmed that the inhibition of EIAV production correlated temporally over several days with the incorporation dynamics of phallacidin into the actin cytoskeleton. Although the overall structure of the actin cytoskeleton and expression of viral protein appeared to be unaffected, phallacidin treatment dramatically reduced the amount of full-length Gag protein associated with the actin cytoskeleton. These data suggest that an association of full-length Gag proteins with de novo actin filaments might contribute to Gag assembly and budding. On the other hand, virion production was enhanced when EIAV-infected cells were incubated briefly (2 h) with the actin-depolymerizing drugs cytochalasin D and latrunculin B. Interestingly, the enhanced virion production induced by cytochalasin D required a functional late (L) domain, either the EIAV YPDL L-domain or the proline-rich L domains derived from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 or Rous sarcoma virus, respectively. Thus, depolymerization of actin filaments may be a common function mediated by retrovirus L domains during late stages of viral budding. Taken together, these observations indicate that dynamic actin polymerization and depolymerization may be associated with different stages of viral production.


Intervirology ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 225-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles V. Benton ◽  
Bruce L. Brown ◽  
John S. Harshman ◽  
Raymond V. Gilden

Virology ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 263 (2) ◽  
pp. 408-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew L. Lichtenstein ◽  
Jodi K. Craigo ◽  
Caroline Leroux ◽  
Keith E. Rushlow ◽  
R.Frank Cook ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 2385-2399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Maury ◽  
Patrick J. Wright ◽  
Sarahann Bradley

ABSTRACT A novel strain of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) called vMA-1c that rapidly and specifically killed infected equine fibroblasts (ED cells) but not other infectible cell lines was established. This strain was generated from an avirulent, noncytopathic strain of EIAV, MA-1. Studies with this new cytolytic strain of virus have permitted us to define viral parameters associated with EIAV-induced cell killing and begin to explore the mechanism. vMA-1c infection resulted in induction of rapid cell death, enhanced fusogenic activity, and increased rates of spread in equine fibroblasts compared to other strains of EIAV. The highly cytolytic nature of vMA-1c suggested that this strain might be superinfecting equine fibroblasts. Receptor interference studies demonstrated that prior infection of equine fibroblasts with EIAV did not alter the ability of vMA-1c to infect and kill these cells. In similar studies in a canine fibroblast cell line, receptor interference did occur. vMA-1c infection of equine fibroblasts was also associated with large quantities of unintegrated viral DNA, a well-established hallmark of retroviral superinfection. Cloning of the vMA-1c genome identified nucleotide changes that would result in at least one amino acid change in all viral proteins. A chimeric infectious molecular clone containing the vMA-1c tat, S2, and env open reading frames recapitulated most of the characteristics of vMA-1c, including superinfection, fibroblast killing, and fusogenic activity. In summary, in vitro selection for a strain of EIAV that rapidly killed cells resulted in the generation of a virus that was able to superinfect these cells, presumably by the use of a novel mechanism of cell entry. This phenotype mapped to the 3′ half of the genome.


2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (9) ◽  
pp. 5653-5664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Maury ◽  
Robert J. Thompson ◽  
Quentin Jones ◽  
Sarahann Bradley ◽  
Tara Denke ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is a lentivirus with in vivo cell tropism primarily for tissue macrophages; however, in vitro the virus can be adapted to fibroblasts and other cell types. Tropism adaptation is associated with both envelope and long terminal repeat (LTR) changes, and findings strongly suggest that these regions of the genome influence cell tropism and virulence. Furthermore, high levels of genetic variation have been well documented in both of these genomic regions. However, specific EIAV nucleotide or amino acid changes that are responsible for cell tropism changes have not been identified. A study was undertaken with the highly virulent, macrophage-tropic strain of virus EIAVwyo to identify LTR changes associated with alterations in cell tropism. We found the stepwise generation of a new transcription factor binding motif within the enhancer that was associated with adaptation of EIAV to endothelial cells and fibroblasts. An LTR that contained the new motif had enhanced transcriptional activity in fibroblasts, whereas the new site did not alter LTR activity in a macrophage cell line. This finding supports a previous prediction that selection for new LTR genetic variants may be a consequence of cell-specific selective pressures. Additional investigations of the EIAVwyo LTR were performed in vivo to determine if LTR evolution could be detected over the course of a 3-year infection. Consistent with previous in vivo findings, we observed no changes in the enhancer region of the LTR over that time period, indicating that the EIAVwyo LTR was evolutionarily stable in vivo.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (13) ◽  
pp. 7244-7253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Li ◽  
Jodi K. Craigo ◽  
Laryssa Howe ◽  
Jonathan D. Steckbeck ◽  
Sheila Cook ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Previous evaluations of inactivated whole-virus and envelope subunit vaccines to equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) have revealed a broad spectrum of efficacy ranging from highly type-specific protection to severe enhancement of viral replication and disease in experimentally immunized equids. Among experimental animal lentivirus vaccines, immunizations with live attenuated viral strains have proven most effective, but the vaccine efficacy has been shown to be highly dependent on the nature and severity of the vaccine virus attenuation. We describe here for the first time the characterization of an experimental attenuated proviral vaccine, EIAVUKΔS2, based on inactivation of the S2 accessory gene to down regulate in vivo replication without affecting in vitro growth properties. The results of these studies demonstrated that immunization with EIAVUKΔS2 elicited mature virus-specific immune responses by 6 months and that this vaccine immunity provided protection from disease and detectable infection by intravenous challenge with a reference virulent biological clone, EIAVPV. This level of protection was observed in each of the six experimental horses challenged with the reference virulent EIAVPV by using a low-dose multiple-exposure protocol (three administrations of 10 median horse infectious doses [HID50], intravenous) designed to mimic field exposures and in all three experimentally immunized ponies challenged intravenously with a single inoculation of 3,000 HID50. In contrast, naïve equids subjected to the low- or high-dose challenge develop a detectable infection of challenge virus and acute disease within several weeks. Thus, these data demonstrate that the EIAV S2 gene provides an optimal site for modification to achieve the necessary balance between attenuation to suppress virulence and replication potential to sufficiently drive host immune responses to produce vaccine immunity to viral exposure.


1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 8344-8348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Li ◽  
Bridget A. Puffer ◽  
Ronald C. Montelaro

ABSTRACT Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) contains the simplest genome among lentiviruses in that it encodes only three putative regulatory genes (S1, S2, S3) in addition to the canonical gag, pol, and envgenes, presumably reflecting its limited tropism to cells of monocyte/macrophage lineage. Tat and Rev functions have been assigned to S1 and S3, respectively, but the specific function for the S2 gene has yet to be determined. Thus, the function of S2 in virus replication in vitro was investigated by using an infectious molecular viral clone, EIAVUK. Various EIAVUK mutants lackingS2 were constructed, and their replication kinetics were examined in several equine cell culture systems, including the natural in vivo target equine macrophage cells. The EIAV S2 mutants showed replication kinetics similar to those of the parental virus in all of the tested primary and transformed equine cell cultures, without any detectable reversion of mutant genomes. The EIAVUKmutants also showed replication kinetics similar to those of the parental virus in an equine blood monocyte differentiation-maturation system. These results demonstrate for the first time that the EIAVS2 gene is not essential and does not appear to affect virus infection and replication properties in target cells in vitro.


1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 2881-2888 ◽  
Author(s):  
D L Lichtenstein ◽  
K E Rushlow ◽  
R F Cook ◽  
M L Raabe ◽  
C J Swardson ◽  
...  

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