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Journal of Virology, January 2000, p. 975-986, Vol. 74, No. 2
Departments of
Pediatrics,1 Biochemistry and Molecular
Genetics,2 Cell
Biology,3 and
Microbiology,4 The University of
Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35233
Received 3 August 1999/Accepted 11 October 1999
The assembly of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is thought to be
similar to that which has been proposed for alphaherpesviruses and
involve envelopment of tegumented subviral particles at the nuclear
membrane followed by export from the cell by a poorly defined pathway.
However, several studies have shown that at least two tegument virion
proteins remain in the cytoplasm during the HCMV replicative cycle,
thereby suggesting that HCMV cannot acquire its final envelope at the
nuclear envelope. We investigated the assembly of HCMV by determining
the intracellular trafficking of the abundant tegument protein pp150
(UL32) in productively infected human fibroblasts. Our results
indicated that pp150 remained within the cytoplasm throughout the
replicative cycle of HCMV and accumulated in a stable, juxtanuclear
structure late in infection. Image analysis using a variety of cell
protein-specific antibodies indicated that the pp150-containing
structure was not a component of the endoplasmic reticulum, (ER),
ER-Golgi intermediate compartment, cis or medial Golgi, or
lysosomes. Partial colocalization of the structure was noted with the
trans-Golgi network, and it appeared to lie in close
proximity to the microtubule organizing center. Two additional tegument
proteins (pp28 and pp65) and three envelope glycoproteins (gB, gH, and
gp65) localized in this same structure late infection. This compartment
appeared to be relatively stable since pp150, pp65, and the processed
form of gB could be coisolated following cell fractionation. Our
findings indicated that pp150 was expressed exclusively within the
cytoplasm throughout the infectious cycle of HCMV and that the
accumulation of the pp150 in this cytoplasmic structure was accompanied
by at least five other virion proteins. These results suggested the
possibility that this virus-induced structure represented a cytoplasmic
site of virus assembly.
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Accumulation of Virion Tegument and Envelope Proteins in a Stable
Cytoplasmic Compartment during Human Cytomegalovirus
Replication: Characterization of a Potential Site of Virus
Assembly


*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pediatrics, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1600 7th Ave.
South, Suite 752, Birmingham, AL 35233. Phone: (205) 939-9590. Fax:
(205) 975-6549. E-mail: wbritt{at}peds.uab.edu.
Present address: Department of Biology, University of California,
San Diego, La Jolla, Calif.
Present address: Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Mason, Ohio.
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