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Journal of Virology, April 1999, p. 3359-3365, Vol. 73, No. 4
Department of Microbiology and Immunology,
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey,
Pennsylvania 17033,1 and Department of
Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York
100292
Received 30 July 1998/Accepted 11 November 1998
Little is known about the mechanisms used by enveloped viruses to
separate themselves from the cell surface at the final step of budding.
However, small sequences in the Gag proteins of several retroviruses (L
domains) have been implicated in this process. A sequence has been
identified in the M proteins of rhabdoviruses that closely resembles
the PPPPY motif in the L domain of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), an avian
retrovirus. To evaluate whether the PPPY sequence in vesicular
stomatitis virus (VSV) M protein has an activity analogous to that of
the retroviral sequence, M-Gag chimeras were characterized. The
N-terminal 74 amino acids of the VSV (Indiana) M protein, including the
PPPY motif, was able to replace the L domain of RSV Gag and allow the
assembly and release of virus-like particles. Alanine substitutions in the VSV PPPY motif severely compromised the budding activity of this
hybrid protein but not that of another chimera which also contained the
RSV PPPPY sequence. We conclude that this VSV sequence is functionally
homologous to the RSV L domain in promoting virus particle release,
making this the first example of such an activity in a virus other than
a retrovirus. Both the RSV and VSV motifs have been shown to interact
in vitro with certain cellular proteins that contain a WW interaction
module, suggesting that the L domains are sites of interaction with
unknown host machinery involved in virus release.
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Late Domain Function Identified in the Vesicular
Stomatitis Virus M Protein by Use of Rhabdovirus-Retrovirus
Chimeras

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology and Immunology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, 500 University Dr., Hershey, PA 17033. Phone: (717) 531-3528. Fax: (717) 531-6522. E-mail: rcraven{at}psu.edu.
Present address: Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary
Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
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