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J. Virol., 06 1997, 4599-4613, Vol 71, No. 6
JH Ahn and GS Hayward
The major immediate-early (MIE) gene products of human cytomegalovirus
(HCMV) are nuclear phosphoproteins that are thought to play key roles in
initiating lytic cycle gene regulation pathways. We have examined the
intranuclear localization pattern of both the IE1 and IE2 proteins in
virus-infected and DNA-transfected cells. When HCMV-infected human diploid
fibroblast (HF) cells were stained with specific monoclonal antibodies, IE1
localized as a mixture of nuclear diffuse and punctate patterns at very
early times (2 h) but changed to an exclusively nuclear diffuse pattern at
later times. In contrast, IE2 was distributed predominantly in nuclear
punctate structures continuously from 2 to at least 12 h after infection.
These punctate structures resembled the preexisting PML-associated nuclear
bodies (ND10 or PML oncogenic domains [PODs]) that are disrupted and
dispersed by the IE110 protein as a very early event in herpes simplex
virus (HSV) infection. However, HCMV differed from HSV by leading instead
to a change in both the PML and SP100 protein distribution from punctate
bodies to uniform diffuse patterns, a process that was complete in 50% of
the cells at 2 h and in 90% of the cells by 4 h after infection. Confocal
double-label indirect immunofluorescence assay analysis confirmed that both
IE1 and IE2 colocalized transiently with PML in punctate bodies at very
early times after infection. In transient expression assays, introduction
of IE1-encoding plasmid DNA alone into Vero or HF cells produced the
typical total redistribution of PML into a uniform nuclear diffuse pattern
together with the IE1 protein, whereas introduction of IE2- encoding
plasmid DNA alone resulted in stable colocalization of the IE2 protein with
PML in the PODs. A truncated mutant form of IE1 gave large nuclear
aggregates and failed to redistribute PML, and similarly a deleted mutant
form of IE2 failed to colocalize with the punctate PML bodies, confirming
the specificity of these effects. Furthermore, both Vero and U373 cell
lines constitutively expressing IE1 also showed total PML relocalization
together with the IE1 protein into a nuclear diffuse pattern, although a
very small percentage of the cells which failed to express IE1 reverted to
a punctate PML pattern. Finally, the PML redistribution activity of IE1 and
the direct association of IE2 with PML punctate bodies were both confirmed
by infection with E1A- negative recombinant adenovirus vectors expressing
either IE1 or IE2 alone. These results confirm that transient
colocalization with and disruption of PML-associated nuclear bodies by IE1
and continuous targeting to PML-associated nuclear bodies by IE2 are
intrinsic properties of these two MIE regulatory proteins, which we suggest
may represent critical initial events for efficient lytic cycle infection
by HCMV.
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology
The major immediate-early proteins IE1 and IE2 of human cytomegalovirus colocalize with and disrupt PML-associated nuclear bodies at very early times in infected permissive cells
Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
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