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Critical Role for Arginine Methylation in Adenovirus-Infected Cells

UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, California,¹ Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, California,² Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of California, San Francisco, California,³ Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037⁴

Received 5 July 2007/ Accepted 31 July 2007

During the late stages of adenovirus infection, the 100K protein (100K) inhibits the translation of cellular messages in the cytoplasm and regulates hexon trimerization and assembly in the nucleus. However, it is not known how it switches between these two functions. Here we show that 100K is methylated on arginine residues at its C terminus during infection and that this region is necessary for binding PRMT1 methylase. Methylated 100K is exclusively nuclear. Mutation of the third RGG motif (amino acids 741 to 743) prevents localization to the nucleus during infection, suggesting that methylation of that sequence is important for 100K shuttling. Treatment of infected cells with methylation inhibitors inhibits expression of late structural proteins. These data suggest that arginine methylation of 100K is necessary for its localization to the nucleus and is a critical cellular function necessary for productive adenovirus infection.

Published ahead of print on 8 August 2007.