Studies of membrane fusion. V. Fusion of erythrocytes with non-haemolytic Sendai virus

1979 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-96
Author(s):  
S. Knutton
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Erythrocyte Membrane ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Lateral Diffusion ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
Cell Swelling ◽  
Viral Membrane ◽  
Cytoplasmic Bridges ◽  
Viral Envelopes

The fusion of human erythrocytes with non-haemolytic ‘1-day’ Sendai virus has been studied by electron microscopy. The mechanism of viral envelope-cell fusion is the same as that described previously for haemolytic ‘3-day’ Sendai virus except that fusion is frequently arrested at an initial stage when 2 segments of smooth linear viral membrane fuse and become incorporated into the erythrocyte membrane. After longer periods of incubation at 37 degrees C, in addition to many partly fused virus particles, long (up to 4 micrometer) lengths of smooth linear viral membrane are seen within the erythrocyte membrane which arise by linear aggregation of shorter (approximately 0.25 micrometer long) segments of smooth linear membrane derived from individual fused viral envelopes. Cell-Cell fusion, as a result of the fusion of a viral envelope with 2 adjacent erythrocytes also occurs but, in the absence of cell swelling, fusion is arrested at this stage with cells joined by one (or more) small cytoplasmic bridges. Typical fused cells are produced if such cells are swollen with hypotonic buffer. These observations provide further evidence that membrane fusion and cell swelling are distinct events in cell fusion and that cell swelling is the driving force both for completing the incorporation of the viral envelope into the cell membrane and for expanding cells connected by small cytoplasmic bridges to form spherical fused cells. Little lateral diffusion of viral envelope components occurs in the absence of cell swelling; in fact, some aggregation of components occurs. Comparison with previous studies using haemolytic ‘3-day’ Sendai virus suggests that virally induced cell swelling perturbs membrane structure so as to allow the rapid lateral diffusion of integrated viral envelope components.

Studies of membrane fusion. VI. Mechanism of the membrane fusion and cell swelling stages of Sendai virus-mediated cell fusion

1980 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-118
Author(s):  
S. Knutton
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Freeze Fracture ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
Cell Swelling ◽  
Fusion Event ◽  
Virus Envelope ◽  
Membrane Rupture ◽  
Membrane Tubules

The membrane fusion and cell swelling stages of Sendai virus-mediated cell-cell fusion have been studied by thin-section and freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Sites of membrane fusion have been detected in human erythrocytes arrested at the membrane fusion stage of cell fusion and in virtually all cases a fused viral envelope or envelope components has been identified thus providing further direct evidence that cell-viral envelope-cell bridge formation is the membrane fusion event in Sendai virus-induced cell fusion. Radial expansion of a single virus bridge connecting 2 cells is sufficient to produce a fused cell. Membrane redistribution which occurs during this cell swelling stage of the fusion process is often accompanied by the formation of a system of membrane tubules in the plane of expansion of the virus bridge. The tubules originate from points of fusion between the bridging virus envelope and the erythrocyte membrane and also expand radially as cells swell. Ultimately membrane rupture occurs and the tubules appear to break down as small vesicles. When previously observed in cross-sectioned cells these membrane tubules were interpreted as sites of direct membrane fusion. The present study indicates that this interpretation is incorrect and shows that the tubules are generated subsequent to membrane fusion when 2 cells connected by a virus bridge are induced to swell. A mechanism to explain the formation of this system of membrane tubules is proposed.

The role of cell swelling and haemolysis in Sendai virus-induced cell fusion and in the diffusion of incorporated viral antigens

1980 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-167
Author(s):  
S. Knutton ◽  
T. Bachi
Keyword(s):  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Erythrocyte Membrane ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
Cell Swelling ◽  
Haemolytic Activity ◽  
Erythrocyte Ghosts ◽  
Viral Antigens ◽  
Cell Cell

The role of the haemolytic activity of Sendai virus in cell-cell fusion has been examined in monolayers of human erythrocytes and erythrocyte ghosts fused with either haemolytic or non-haemolytic virus. Morphological observations indicate that cell swelling and haemolysis is a distinct event in cell-cell fusion irrespective of whether it is virally induced or, in the case of non-haemolytic virus, experimentally induced. Osmotic swelling appears to be the driving force by which cells which have established sites of membrane fusion expand such sites to form poly-erythrocytes. Immunofluorescent labelling of viral antigens incorporated into the erythrocyte membrane as a result of viral envelope-cell fusion indicates that diffusion of antigens in the plane of the membrane is restricted in intact erythrocytes and resealed erythrocyte ghosts but not in haemolysed erythrocytes or unsealed ghosts. A perturbation of the erythrocyte membrane resulting from osmotic lysis appears to form a prerequisite for the lateral diffusion of viral elements.

scholarly journals Sendai virus recruits cellular villin to remodel actin cytoskeleton during fusion with hepatocytes

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (26) ◽  
pp. 3801-3814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunandini Chandra ◽  
Raju Kalaivani ◽  
Manoj Kumar ◽  
Narayanaswamy Srinivasan ◽  
Debi P. Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Viral Entry ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
Bioactive Molecules ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Actin Dynamics ◽  
Envelope Glycoproteins ◽  
Animal Cells ◽  
Viral Envelopes

Reconstituted Sendai viral envelopes (virosomes) are well recognized for their promising potential in membrane fusion–mediated delivery of bioactive molecules to liver cells. Despite the known function of viral envelope glycoproteins in catalyzing fusion with cellular membrane, the role of host cell proteins remains elusive. Here, we used two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis to analyze hepatic cells in early response to virosome-induced membrane fusion. Quantitative mass spectrometry together with biochemical analysis revealed that villin, an actin-modifying protein, is differentially up-regulated and phosphorylated at threonine 206—an early molecular event during membrane fusion. We found that villin influences actin dynamics and that this influence, in turn, promotes membrane mixing through active participation of Sendai viral envelope glycoproteins. Modulation of villin in host cells also resulted in a discernible effect on the entry and egress of progeny Sendai virus. Taken together, these results suggest a novel mechanism of regulated viral entry in animal cells mediated by host factor villin.

scholarly journals Studies of membrane fusion. IV. Fusion of HeLa cells with Sendai virus

1979 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
S. Knutton
Keyword(s):  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Hela Cells ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Freeze Fracture ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
Cell Plasma Membrane ◽  
Virus Particles ◽  
Cell Plasma

The Sendai virus-induced fusion of HeLa cells has been studied by freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Freeze-fracture observations confirm previous scanning electron-microscope studies (1977) and show that at 4 degrees C virus particles bind to the cell surface and that cell agglutination results from the crosslinking by virus particles of microvilli on adjacent cells. Incubation at 37 degrees C initiates a change in viral envelope structure and fusion of ‘altered’ virus particles with the cell plasma membrane. Fusion of a virus particle with two crosslinked cells is probably the membrane fusion event which initiates cell-cell fusion; fusion is completed as a result of virally induced cell swelling. Lateral diffusion of viral envelope components following virus-cell fusion and, in some instances, an aggregation of plasma membrane intramembrane particles occurs in swollen cells. These observations show that the mechanisms of viral envelope-cell and probably cell-cell fusion are the same as have been reported for erythrocytes. Although endocytosis of intact virus particles does occur, the specialized cell-mediated mechanism for fusion of the viral envelope with the cell plasma membrane suggests that this, and not viropexis, is the mechanism of Sendai virus infection.

scholarly journals A Histidine Switch in Hemagglutinin-Neuraminidase Triggers Paramyxovirus-Cell Membrane Fusion

2008 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1727-1741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuja Krishnan ◽  
Santosh K. Verma ◽  
Prashant Mani ◽  
Rahul Gupta ◽  
Suman Kundu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fusion Protein ◽  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Fusion Proteins ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
Attachment Protein ◽  
Histidine Residues ◽  
Human Parainfluenza Virus ◽  
Mimicking Peptides

ABSTRACT Most paramyxovirus fusion proteins require coexpression of and activation by a homotypic attachment protein, hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN), to promote membrane fusion. However, the molecular mechanism of the activation remains unknown. We previously showed that the incorporation of a monohistidylated lipid into F-virosome (Sendai viral envelope containing only fusion protein) enhanced its fusion to hepatocytes, suggesting that the histidine residue in the lipid accelerated membrane fusion. Therefore, we explored whether a histidine moiety in HN could similarly direct activation of the fusion protein. In membrane fusion assays, the histidine substitution mutants of HN (H247A of Sendai virus and H245A of human parainfluenza virus 3) had impaired membrane fusion promotion activity without significant changes in other biological activities. Synthetic 30-mer peptides corresponding to regions of the two HN proteins containing these histidine residues rescued the fusion promoting activity of the mutants, whereas peptides with histidine residues substituted by alanine did not. These histidine-containing peptides also activated F-virosome fusion with hepatocytes both in the presence and in the absence of mutant HN in the virosome. We provide evidence that the HN-mimicking peptides promote membrane fusion, revealing a specific histidine “switch” in HN that triggers fusion.

Effect of Solution Osmotic Pressure on Cell Fusion by Poly(Ethylene Glycol)

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Nakajima ◽  
Yoshito Ikada
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Osmotic Pressure ◽  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Culture Medium ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Cell Swelling ◽  
Cell Incubation ◽  
Peg Treatment ◽  
Poly Ethylene ◽  
Osmotic Pressure Difference

Effects of the osmotic pressure of culture medium on the membrane fusion of L929 cells in the monolayer state were investigated using polyethylene glycol) (PEG) with the molecular weight of 3,000 at various concentrations at phosphate buffer saline (PBS). Cell incubation for fusion was performed via three stages; (1) incubation before PEG treatment (preincubation), (2) incubation in the presence of PEG (PEG incubation), and (3) incubation after PEG treatment (postincubation). The PBS concentrations half that of a isotonic solution in the pre- and postincubation stages significantly accelerated the membrane fusion, whereas cell treatment at more hypotonic or hypertonic concentrations of PBS suppressed cell fusion. This result was explained in terms of cell swelling and shrinking induced by the osmotic pressure difference, because such cell morphological changes actually occurred when the PBS concentration was varied from the isotonicity. In contrast, almost no effect of osmotic pressure on cell fusion was observed if PEG was present in the culture medium at 40 w/w% concentration, regardless of the PBS concentration.

scholarly journals Measurement of membrane fusion activity from viral membrane fusion proteins based on a fusion-dependent promoter induction system in insect cells

2001 ◽  
Vol 82 (10) ◽  
pp. 2519-2529 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Slack ◽  
G. W. Blissard
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Insect Cells ◽  
Syncytium Formation ◽  
Fusion Activity ◽  
Viral Membrane ◽  
Fusion Domain ◽  
Membrane Fusion Proteins ◽  
Viral Membrane Fusion ◽  
Egfp Fluorescence

A number of viral membrane fusion proteins can be expressed alone on the surface of host cells, and then triggered to induce cell-to-cell fusion or syncytium formation. Although rapid and easily observed, syncytium formation is not easily quantified and differences in fusion activity are not easily distinguished or measured. To address this problem, we developed a rapid and quantitative cell-to-cell fusion system that is useful for comparative analysis and may be suitable for high throughput screening. In this system, expression of a reporter protein, enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), is dependent on cell-to-cell fusion. Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) insect cells expressing a chimeric Lac repressor-IE1 protein were fused to Sf9 cells containing an EGFP reporter construct under the control of a responsive lac operator-containing promoter. Membrane fusion efficiency was measured from the resulting EGFP fluorescence activity. Sf9 cells expressing the Orgyia pseudotsugata multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (OpMNPV) GP64 envelope fusion protein were used as a model to test this fusion assay. Subtle changes in fusion activities of GP64 proteins containing single amino acid substitutions in a putative membrane fusion domain were distinguished, and decreases in EGFP fluorescence corresponded to decreases in the hydrophobicity in the small putative membrane fusion domain.

An Ultrastructural Study of Interspecific Cell Fusion Induced by Inactivated Sendai Virus

1966 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-406
Author(s):  
E. E. SCHNEEBERGER ◽  
H. HARRIS
Keyword(s):  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Hela Cells ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Electron Microscopic Examination ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Virus Particles ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Ehrlich Ascites ◽  
Ehrlich Ascites Cells ◽  
Cytoplasmic Bridges

An electron-microscopic examination was made of the process of cell fusion induced by Sendai virus inactivated by ultraviolet light. Ehrlich ascites cells, HeLa cells, rabbit macrophages, rat lymphocytes and nucleated hen erythrocytes were chosen for study because it had previously been shown that these cells could be fused together, with varying degrees of facility, to form artificial heterokaryons. Cells which had large numbers of microvilli on their surfaces fused together more readily than those which had not, but the presence of microvilli was not essential for fusion to occur. Fusion appeared in all cases to be initiated by the formation of small cytoplasmic bridges between the cells; but virus particles, although present elsewhere on the surface of the cells, were not detected at or near the cytoplasmic bridges. HeLa-hen erythrocyte heterokaryons were formed by the fusion of HeLa cells with red cell ghosts.

scholarly journals Spring-Loaded Heptad Repeat Residues Regulate the Expression and Activation of Paramyxovirus Fusion Protein

2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (7) ◽  
pp. 3130-3141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Luque ◽  
Charles J. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Protein Expression ◽  
Membrane Fusion ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Tertiary Structure ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Coiled Coil ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
Heptad Repeat ◽  
F Protein

ABSTRACT During viral entry, the paramyxovirus fusion (F) protein fuses the viral envelope to a cellular membrane. Similar to other class I viral fusion glycoproteins, the F protein has two heptad repeat regions (HRA and HRB) that are important in membrane fusion and can be targeted by antiviral inhibitors. Upon activation of the F protein, HRA refolds from a spring-loaded, crumpled structure into a coiled coil that inserts a hydrophobic fusion peptide into the target membrane and binds to the HRB helices to form a fusogenic hairpin. To investigate how F protein conformational changes are regulated, we mutated in the Sendai virus F protein a highly conserved 10-residue sequence in HRA that undergoes major structural changes during protein refolding. Nine of the 15 mutations studied caused significant defects in F protein expression, processing, and fusogenicity. Conversely, the remaining six mutations enhanced the fusogenicity of the F protein, most likely by helping spring the HRA coil. Two of the residues that were neither located at “a” or “d” positions in the heptad repeat nor conserved among the paramyxoviruses were key regulators of the folding and fusion activity of the F protein, showing that residues not expected to be important in coiled-coil formation may play important roles in regulating membrane fusion. Overall, the data support the hypothesis that regions in the F protein that undergo dramatic changes in secondary and tertiary structure between the prefusion and hairpin conformations regulate F protein expression and activation.

The Croonian Lecture, 1971 Cell fusion and the analysis of malignancy

1971 ◽  
Vol 179 (1054) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Sendai Virus ◽  
Somatic Cells ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Viral Envelope ◽  
The Body ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Intimate Contact ◽  
Produce Cell ◽  
Animal Virus

The cells of the body do not normally engage in sex. Nor is it easy to see that sexual activity would greatly benefit them. For sex is ultimately merely a device to facilitate the accumulation in a single individual of favourable mutations occurring separately in different individuals; and since the cells in the body are, at least in large part, genetically identical, the advantages to be gained by genetic exchange are obviously limited. In recent years, however, a technique has been devised that imposes a form of artificial sexuality on somatic cells, and it has been found that somatic cells of widely different genetic constitutions can be induced to undergo genetic amalgamation and exchange. A few years ago, Professor Hayes, in a Leeuwenhoek Lecture (Hayes 1966) described how sex in bacteria is mediated by an infectious particle which produces a change in the cell wall of the ‘male’ bacterium that enables it to make intimate contact with the ‘female’ bacterium. A connexion is then established between the cytoplasms of the two bacteria and through this connexion transfer of genetic material may take place. The imposition of sexuality on somatic cells is achieved by a mechanism which, viewed superficially, is reminiscent of bacterial conjugation. An animal virus, whose normal mode of entry into the cell appears to involve fusion between the viral membrane and the cell membrane, is used to facilitate fusion between the cell membranes of contiguous cells (Okada 1958; Harris & Watkins 1965). Cytoplasmic bridges are thus established which eventually determine the complete coalescence of the cytoplasms of adjacent cells (Schneeberger & Harris 1966). In this way multinucleated cells are formed which contain various numbers of nuclei, and different kinds of nuclei if cells of different kinds are brought together (Harris, Watkins, Ford & Schoefl 1966). The virus now commonly used to produce cell fusion is the Sendai virus, a member of the parainfluenza group of myxoviruses, although many other viruses can achieve the same effect. Unlike the sex particle in bacteria, however, Sendai virus will produce fusion of somatic cells even after its nucleic acid has been destroyed (Okada & Tadokoro 1962; Neff & Enders 1968); the viral envelope is all that is required for this effect. The standard reagent for inducing cell fusion is Sendai virus inactivated by large doses of ultraviolet light or by appropriate treatment with β -propriolactone.

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