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Rescue of Maturation-Defective Flock House Virus Infectivity with Noninfectious, Mature, Viruslike Particles

Hanna E. Walukiewicz,^1, Manidipa Banerjee,² Anette Schneemann,² and John E. Johnson^1,2*

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California—San Diego,¹ Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037²

Received 20 October 2007/ Accepted 29 November 2007

The infectivity of flock house virus (FHV) requires autocatalytic maturation cleavage of the capsid protein at residue 363, liberating the C-terminal 44-residue peptides, which remain associated with the particle. In vitro studies previously demonstrated that the amphipathic, helical portion (amino acids 364 to 385) of is membrane active, suggesting a role for in RNA membrane translocation during infection. Here we show that the infectivity of a maturation-defective mutant of FHV can be restored by viruslike particles that lack the genome but undergo maturation cleavage. We propose that the colocalization of the two defective particle types in an entry compartment allows the restoration of infectivity by .

Published ahead of print on 12 December 2007.

Present address: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801.