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Journal of Virology, October 2009, p. 10616-10626, Vol. 83, No. 20
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.00749-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Testing an Electrostatic Interaction Hypothesis of Hepatitis B Virus Capsid Stability by Using an In Vitro Capsid Disassembly/Reassembly System {triangledown}

Margaret Newman,1 Pong Kian Chua,1 Fan-Mei Tang,2 Pei-Yi Su,2 and Chiaho Shih1,2*

Institute for Human Infections and Immunology, Department of Pathology, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0609,1 Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan2

Received 11 April 2009/ Accepted 26 July 2009

To test a previously coined "charge balance hypothesis" of human hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsid stability, we established an in vitro disassembly and reassembly system using bacterially expressed HBV capsids. Capsid disassembly can be induced by micrococcal nuclease digestion of encapsidated RNA. HBV core protein (HBc) mutants containing various amounts of arginine were constructed by serial truncations at the C terminus. Capsids containing smaller amounts of arginine (HBc 149, 154, and 157) remained intact after micrococcal nuclease digestion by native gel electrophoresis. Capsids containing larger amounts of arginine (HBc 159, 164, 169, and 171) exhibited reduced and more diffuse banding intensity and slightly upshifted mobility (HBc 159 and 164). Capsids containing the largest amounts of arginine (HBc 173, 175, and 183), as well as HBc 167, exhibited no detectable banding signal, indicating loss of capsid integrity or stability. Interestingly, capsid reassembly can be induced by polyanions, including oligonucleotides, poly-glutamic acid, and nonbiological polymer (polyacrylic acid). In contrast, polycations (polylysine and polyethylenimine) and low-molecular-weight anions (inositol triphosphate) induced no capsid reassembly. Results obtained by gel assay were confirmed by electron microscopy. Reassembled capsids comigrated with undigested parental capsids on agarose gels and cosedimented with undigested capsids by sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation. Taken together, the results indicate that HBV capsid assembly and integrity depend on polyanions, which probably can help minimize intersubunit charge repulsion caused mainly by arginine-rich domain III or IV in close contact. The exact structure of polyanions is not important for in vitro capsid reassembly. A large amount of independent experimental evidence for this newly coined "electrostatic interaction hypothesis" is discussed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan. Phone: 8862-2652-3996. Fax: 8862-2652-3597. E-mail: cshih{at}ibms.sinica.edu.tw

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 5 August 2009.

Journal of Virology, October 2009, p. 10616-10626, Vol. 83, No. 20
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.00749-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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