scholarly journals Autographa californica Multiple Nucleopolyhedrovirus me53 (ac140) Is a Nonessential Gene Required for Efficient Budded-Virus Production

2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (15) ◽  
pp. 7440-7448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jondavid de Jong ◽  
Basil M. Arif ◽  
David A. Theilmann ◽  
Peter J. Krell

ABSTRACT me53 is a highly conserved baculovirus gene found in all lepidopteran baculoviruses that have been fully sequenced to date. The putative ME53 protein contains a zinc finger domain and has been previously described as a major early transcript. We generated an me53-null bacmid (AcΔme53GFP), as well as a repair virus (AcRepME53:HA-GFP) carrying me53 with a C-terminal hemagglutinin (HA) tag, under the control of its native early and late promoter elements. Sf9 and BTI-Tn-5b1 cells transfected with AcΔme53GFP resulted in a 3-log reduction in budded-virus (BV) production compared to both the parental Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrosis virus and the repair bacmids, demonstrating that although me53 is not essential for replication, replication is compromised in its absence. Our data also suggest that me53 does not affect DNA replication. Cell fractionation showed that ME53 is found in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm as early as 6 h postinfection. Deletion of the early transcriptional start site resulted in a 10- to 360-fold reduction of BV yield; however, deletion of the late promoter (ATAAG) resulted in a 160- to 1,000-fold reduction, suggesting that, in the context of BV production, ME53 is required both early and late in the infection cycle. Additional Western blot analysis of purified virions from the repair virus revealed that ME53:HA is associated with both BV and occlusion-derived virions. Together, these results indicate that me53, although not essential for viral replication, is required for efficient BV production.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingang Chen ◽  
Jian Yang ◽  
Xiaoqin Yang ◽  
Chengfeng Lei ◽  
Xiulian Sun ◽  
...  

Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) orf75 (ac75) is a highly conserved gene that is essential for AcMNPV propagation. However, the key domains or residues of the AC75 protein that play a role in viral propagation have not been identified. In this study, sequence alignment revealed that residues Phe-54 and Gln-81 of AC75 were highly conserved among alphabaculoviruses and betabaculoviurses. Thus, Phe-54 and Gln-81 AC75 mutation bacmids were constructed. We found that Gln-81 was not required for viral propagation, whereas mutating Phe-54 reduced budded virus production by 10-fold and impaired occlusion body formation when compared with that of the wild-type AcMNPV. Electron microscopy observations showed that the Phe-54 mutation affected polyhedrin assembly and also occlusion-derived virus embedding, whereas western blot analysis revealed that mutating Phe-54 reduced the amount of AC75 but did not affect the localization of AC75 in infected cells. A protein stability assay showed that the Phe-54 mutation affected AC75 stability. Taken together, Phe-54 was identified as an important residue of AC75, and ac75 is a pivotal gene in budding virus production and occlusion body formation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (8) ◽  
pp. 1795-1803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamal M. Gandhi ◽  
Taro Ohkawa ◽  
Matthew D. Welch ◽  
Loy E. Volkman

Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus requires nuclear actin for progeny virus production and thereby encodes viral products that ensure actin’s translocation to and retention within the nucleus. Current evidence suggests that the ie0–ie1 gene complex along with five nuclear localization of actin (NLA) genes are sufficient for NLA in transient transfection experiments. Here we report that, during infection, only one of the five NLA genes, Ac102, was essential for NLA, and that AC102 had at least one other activity critical for budded virus (BV) production. Viral deletion mutants in the other four NLA genes were viable, with only two having replication phenotypes different from that of the wild type. Infection with AcΔpe38 revealed a delay in both BV production and NLA. Infection with AcΔ152 revealed a delay in BV production, but no corresponding delay in NLA. Infection with either AcΔpe38 or AcΔ152 resulted in slightly reduced BV titres. Deletion of Ac004 or he65 had no impact on actin translocation kinetics, timing of BV production or BV titres. These results implicate AC102 as a key player in baculovirus manipulation of actin.


2007 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric B. Carstens ◽  
Yuntao Wu

The presence of homologous repeat (hr) regions in multiple locations within baculovirus genomes has led to the hypothesis that they represent origins of DNA replication. This hypothesis has been supported by transient replication assays where plasmids carrying hrs replicated in the presence of virus DNA replication. This study investigated whether any specific hr region was essential for viral DNA replication in vivo, by generating a series of recombinant Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus where the lacZ gene replaced hr1, hr1a, hr2, hr3, hr4a or hr4b. In addition, a double-hr knockout virus was constructed where both hr2 and hr3 were deleted. The successful construction of these knockout viruses indicated that no specific region was essential for virus production. These recombinant viruses were characterized by titrations of budded virus, expression of a variety of virus-specific proteins and the synthesis of viral DNA at various times after infection. The results demonstrated that each hr was dispensable for all of these properties and that no single region was absolutely essential for virus replication in cell culture. The functional significance of multiple origin regions is still unclear.


2005 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 1619-1627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-Hong Zhang ◽  
Taro Ohkawa ◽  
Jan O. Washburn ◽  
Loy E. Volkman

Ac150 is expressed late during infection of cultured lepidopteran insect cells by Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus. The Ac150 gene product is predicted to have a molecular mass of 11 161 Da and consists of a hydrophobic N terminus and a single ‘peritrophin-A’-like domain, connected by a short region of charged amino acids. An Ac150 deletion mutant and its parental wild-type virus were compared for differences in virulence by both oral and intrahaemocoelic routes of infection. It was found that the mutant was significantly less virulent in larvae of all three host species tested (Heliothis virescens, Spodoptera exigua and Trichoplusia ni) when occlusions were administered orally, but not when isolated occlusion-derived virus (ODV) was administered orally or budded virus was administered intrahaemocoelically. ODV yields were the same from equal numbers of mutant and wild-type occlusions, and nucleocapsid-distribution frequencies within the two ODV populations were the same, eliminating these features as explanations for the observed differences in virulence. Comparison of pathogenesis, as revealed by lacZ expression from identical reporter-gene cassettes in the mutant and wild-type virus, indicated that the mutant was less efficient at establishing primary infection in midgut cells; otherwise, it exhibited infection kinetics identical to those of wild-type virus. Ac150, therefore, can be considered a per os infection factor that mediates, but is not essential for, oral infection.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (12) ◽  
pp. 6153-6162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Yu ◽  
Eric B. Carstens

ABSTRACT Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) lef-3 is one of nine genes required for viral DNA replication in transient assays. LEF-3 is predicted to contain several domains related to its functions, including nuclear localization, single-strand DNA binding, oligomerization, interaction with P143 helicase, and interaction with a viral alkaline nuclease. To investigate the essential nature of LEF-3 and the roles it may play during baculovirus DNA replication, a lef-3 null bacmid (bKO-lef3) was constructed in Escherichia coli and characterized in Sf21 cells. The results showed that AcMNPV lef-3 is essential for DNA replication, budded virus production, and late gene expression in vivo. Cells transfected with the lef-3 knockout bacmid produced low levels of early proteins (P143, DNA polymerase, and early GP64) and no late proteins (P47, VP39, or late GP64). To investigate the functional role of domains within the LEF-3 open reading frame in the presence of the whole viral genome, plasmids expressing various LEF-3 truncations were transfected into Sf21 cells together with bKO-lef3 DNA. The results showed that expression of AcMNPV LEF-3 amino acids 1 to 125 was sufficient to stimulate viral DNA replication and to support late gene expression. Expression of Choristoneura fumiferana MNPV lef-3 did not rescue any LEF-3 functions. The construction of a LEF-3 amino acid 1 to 125 rescue bacmid revealed that this region of LEF-3, when expressed in the presence of the rest of the viral genome, stimulated viral DNA replication and late and very late protein expression, as well as budded virus production.


Viruses ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sainan Li ◽  
Lu Li ◽  
Haizhou Zhao ◽  
Wenhua Liu

The Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) ac111 gene is highly conserved in lepidopteran-specific baculoviruses, and its function in the AcMNPV life cycle is still unknown. To investigate the function of ac111, an ac111-knockout AcMNPV (vAc111KO) was constructed through homologous recombination in Escherichia coli. Viral growth curve analysis and plaque assays showed that the deletion of ac111 had no effect on infectious budded virion production. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis confirmed that viral DNA replication was unaffected in the absence of ac111. Electron microscopy revealed that the ac111 deletion did not affect nucleocapsid assembly, occlusion-derived virion formation, or the embedding of occlusion-derived virions into the occlusion bodies. However, in vivo bioassays showed that although the deletion of ac111 did not affect the per os infectivity of AcMNPV in Spodoptera exigua larvae, it led to an approximately five-fold reduction in infectivity of AcMNPV in Trichoplusia ni larvae, and vAc111KO took approximately 21 h longer to kill Trichoplusia ni larvae than the wild-type viruses. Taken together, our results demonstrated that although ac111 is not essential for virus replication in vitro, it plays an important role in the per os infectivity of AcMNPV in a host-dependent manner.


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