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Journal of Virology, April 2007, p. 3922-3932, Vol. 81, No. 8
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02091-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Human Coronavirus 229E Papain-Like Proteases Have Overlapping Specificities but Distinct Functions in Viral Replication{triangledown}

John Ziebuhr,1 Barbara Schelle,2 Nadja Karl,1,2 Ekaterina Minskaia,1 Sonja Bayer,2 Stuart G. Siddell,3 Alexander E. Gorbalenya,4 and Volker Thiel5*

Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom,1 Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany,2 Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, School of Medical and Veterinary Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom,3 Department of Medical Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands,4 Research Department, Kantonal Hospital St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland5

Received 25 September 2006/ Accepted 16 January 2007

Expression of the exceptionally large RNA genomes of CoVs involves multiple regulatory mechanisms, including extensive proteolytic processing of the large replicase polyproteins, pp1a and pp1ab, by two types of cysteine proteases: the chymotrypsin-like main protease and papain-like accessory proteases (PLpros). Here, we characterized the proteolytic processing of the human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) amino-proximal pp1a/pp1ab region by two paralogous PLpro activities. Reverse-genetics data revealed that replacement of the PL2pro active-site cysteine was lethal. By contrast, the PL1pro activity proved to be dispensable for HCoV-229E virus replication, although reversion of the PL1pro active-site substitution to the wild-type sequence after several passages in cell culture indicated that there was selection pressure to restore the PL1pro activity. Further experiments showed that both PL1pro and PL2pro were able to cleave the nsp1-nsp2 cleavage site, with PL2pro cleaving the site less efficiently. The PL1pro-negative mutant genotype could be stably maintained in cell culture when the nsp1-nsp2 site was replaced by a short autoproteolytic sequence, suggesting that the major driving force for the observed reversion of the PL1pro mutation was the requirement for efficient nsp1-nsp2 cleavage. The data suggest that the two HCoV-229E PLpro paralogs have overlapping substrate specificities but different functions in viral replication. Within the tightly controlled interplay of the two protease activities, PL2pro plays a universal and essential proteolytic role that appears to be assisted by the PL1pro paralog at specific sites. Functional and evolutionary implications of the differential amino-terminal polyprotein-processing pathways among the main CoV lineages are discussed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Kantonal Hospital St. Gallen, Research Department, 9007 St. Gallen, Switzerland. Phone: 41-71-4942843. Fax: 41-71-4946321. E-mail: volker.thiel{at}kssg.ch

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 24 January 2007.

Journal of Virology, April 2007, p. 3922-3932, Vol. 81, No. 8
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02091-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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