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Journal of Virology, November 2006, p. 11226-11234, Vol. 80, No. 22
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01178-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Functional Role of the Cytoplasmic Tail Domain of the Major Envelope Fusion Protein of Group II Baculoviruses

Gang Long,1,2 Xiaoyu Pan,1 Marcel Westenberg,2 and Just M. Vlak2*

State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China,1 Department of Virology, Wageningen University, Binnenhaven 11, 6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands2

Received 7 June 2006/ Accepted 3 August 2006

F proteins from baculovirus nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) group II members are the major budded virus (BV) viral envelope fusion proteins. They undergo furin-like proteolysis processing in order to be functional. F proteins from different baculovirus species have a long cytoplasmic tail domain (CTD), ranging from 48 (Spodoptera litura multicapsid NPV [MNPV]) to 78 (Adoxophyes honmai NPV) amino acid (aa) residues, with a nonassigned function. This CTD is much longer than the CTD of GP64-like envelope fusion proteins (7 aa), which appear to be nonessential for BV infectivity. Here we have investigated the functional role of the CTD of Helicoverpa armigera single-capsid NPV (HearNPV), a group II NPV. We combined a newly constructed HearNPV f-null bacmid knockout-repair system and an Autographa californica MNPV (AcMNPV) gp64-null bacmid knockout-pseudotype system with mutation and rescue experiments to study the functional role of the baculovirus F protein CTD. We show that except for the 16 C-terminal aa, the HearNPV F CTD is essential for virus spread from cell to cell. In addition, the CTD of HearNPV F is involved in BV production in a length-dependent manner and is essential for BV infectivity. The tyrosine residue Y658, located 16 aa from the C terminus, seems to be critical. However, HearNPV F without a CTD still rescues the infectivity of gp64-null AcMNPV BV, indicating that the CTD is not involved in processing and fusogenicity. Altogether, our results indicate that the F protein is essential for baculovirus BV infectivity and that the CTD is important for F protein incorporation into BV.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Virology, Wageningen University, Binnenhaven 11, 6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands. Phone: 31-317-483090. Fax: 31-317-484820. E-mail: just.vlak{at}wur.nl.

Journal of Virology, November 2006, p. 11226-11234, Vol. 80, No. 22
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01178-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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