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J. Virol., 05 1995, 2825-2830, Vol 69, No. 5
D Yu, CC Wang and AL Wang
The double-stranded RNA genome of giardiavirus (GLV) has only two large
open reading frame (ORFs). The 100-kDa capsid polypeptide (p100) is encoded
by ORF1, whereas the only other viral polypeptide, the 190-kDa GLV
RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (p190), is synthesized as an ORF1-ORF2 fusion
protein by a (-1) ribosomal frameshifting. Edman degradation revealed that
p100 was N-terminally blocked except for 2 to 5% of it that showed free N
terminus starting from amino acid residue 33 of ORF1. Studies using
antiserum targeted against amino acid residues 6 to 27 indicated that this
region (NT) is absent from viral p100 and p190, while pulse-labelling
experiments showed that NT is present in nascent p100 synthesized in
GLV-infected Giardia lamblia but removed subsequently. In contrast, this
region was retained in the two viral proteins synthesized in vitro, and it
was not removed upon prolonged incubation or inclusion of microsomal
fraction in the in vitro translation reaction mixtures. These results
suggest that endoplasmic reticulum is not involved in the protein
processing and that the precursors of p100 and p190 are incapable of
cleaving themselves or each other. This specific cleavage was reproduced
when lysates from GLV- infected G. lamblia were added, but not those from
uninfected cells. The cleavage activity was relatively insensitive to
phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, but it was inhibitable by leupeptin or E-
64, two known specific inhibitors of cysteine protease. The possible origin
of this processing activity is discussed.
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology
Maturation of giardiavirus capsid protein involves posttranslational proteolytic processing by a cysteine protease
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco 94143, USA.
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