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Journal of Virology, December 2005, p. 15582-15585, Vol. 79, No. 24
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.79.24.15582-15585.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
A Deubiquitinating Activity Is Conserved in the Large Tegument Protein of the Herpesviridae
Christian Schlieker,
Gregory A. Korbel,
Lisa M. Kattenhorn,
and
Hidde L. Ploegh*
Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, NRB, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Received 16 August 2005/
Accepted 20 September 2005

ABSTRACT
The largest tegument protein of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1),
UL36, contains a novel deubiquitinating activity embedded in
it. All members of the
Herpesviridae contain a homologue of
HSV-1 UL36, the N-terminal segments of which show perfect conservation
of those residues implicated in catalysis. For murine cytomegalovirus
and Epstein-Barr virus, chosen as representatives of the beta-
and gammaherpesvirus subfamilies, respectively, we here show
that the homologous modules indeed display deubiquitinating
activity in vitro. The conservation of this activity throughout
all subfamilies is indicative of an important, if not essential,
function.

TEXT
Modification of proteins by ubiquitin (Ub) plays a pivotal role
in a multitude of cellular processes, including proteolysis,
cell cycle control, receptor internalization, and sorting within
the endo/lysosomal system (
7,
14,
16). Ubiquitination is achieved
by an enzymatic cascade comprising a Ub-activating enzyme (E1),
several Ub-carrier proteins (E2s), and hundreds of Ub ligases
(E3s). Ubiquitination can be reversed by several families of
enzymes collectively designated deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs)
(
1,
15).
A number of viruses have evolved strategies to manipulate the ubiquitination status of host cell proteins, both through conjugation and deconjugation (2, 4, 6, 10, 13). Recently, we reported the identification of a novel viral ubiquitin-specific protease (USP), UL36USP, encoded by the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) genome (9). UL36USP is a polypeptide of approximately 420 amino acids (aa) carried within the N-terminal portion of UL36, the largest tegument protein (3,164 aa) of HSV-1. This activity was detected through the use of mechanism-based, active-site-directed probes and confirmed by expression in Escherichia coli of a corresponding fragment that cleaves ubiquitin-based substrates. UL36USP activity peaks at late stages of viral replication and appears to require proteolytic processing from full-length UL36 (9). The N-terminal UL36 fragment is well conserved in alphaherpesviruses, and a low homology to corresponding genes of the betaherpesvirus and gammaherpesvirus subfamilies was apparent in sequence alignments, but with strict conservation of the proposed catalytic residues. DUB activity may therefore be well conserved across the herpesvirus family and, if this is proven to be correct, would suggest an important function for this type of activity.
We therefore set out to investigate the possible DUB activity of two phylogenetically distant homologues of HSV-1 UL36USP, each representing a different subfamily of the Herpesviridae. We chose UL36 homologues encoded by mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV, M48) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV, BPLF1) as representatives of the beta- and gammaherpesvirus subfamilies, respectively. In order to assess the degree of homology between UL36 from HSV-1 and its MCMV and EBV counterparts, a sequence alignment was generated, covering the first 336 aa (the numbering refers to HSV-1) of UL36 (Fig. 1). Overall, the homology to HSV-1 is rather low, with only 10% and 15% sequence identity for MCMV and EBV, respectively. Nevertheless, the putative catalytic triad Cys-His-Asp is strictly conserved, along with a putative oxyanion hole-forming Gln residue (Fig. 1). The conserved Cys65 is the active-site cysteine in HSV-1 UL36USP (9). We therefore propose that the two homologues under investigation likewise represent cysteine protease-type DUBs. In support of this notion, a secondary structure prediction (11) shows a high degree of structural similarity despite limited sequence identity, suggesting that all members may adopt a similar tertiary structure (Fig. 1). Based on the observations that (i) the putative catalytic triad is contained within a stretch of
200 aa and (ii) the secondary structure prediction diverges beyond position
280, we speculate that a fragment of 280 aa or less should include the minimal domain necessary and sufficient for catalysis.
To investigate the functionality of this minimal DUB consensus
domain, we cloned the relevant genomic fragments for heterologous
expression and subsequent biochemical characterization. The
corresponding DNA fragments, specifying aa 1 to 205 of EBV (EBV
205)
and aa 1 to 285 of MCMV (MCMV
285), were PCR-cloned into pET28
according to standard procedures, using MCMV strain Smith and
EBV B958 type 1 DNA as templates. Following expression in
E. coli BL21-DE3, the fragments, equipped with an N-terminal His
tag, were purified, using a Ni-NTA resin (QIAGEN), and subsequently
subjected to gel filtration (S75 HiLoad; Amersham Pharmacia
Biotech) in 50 mM Tris, 50 mM KCl, 50 mM NaCl, 0.5 mM EDTA,
2 mM dithiothreitol, and 10% (vol/vol) glycerol (pH 7.5) to
achieve apparent homogeneity. To examine whether the purified
constructs indeed display DUB activity, we used hemagglutinin
(HA)-tagged Ub-vinylmethyl ester (HAUbVME), a probe that acts
as a suicide inhibitor for DUBs by forming a thioether bond
with the active-site cysteine (
3,
12). Reactions were performed
using final concentrations of 1 µM enzyme (EBV
205 or MCMV
285)
in the absence and presence of 2 µM HAUbVME in reaction
buffer (50 mM Tris, 100 mM NaCl, 1 mM dithiothreitol pH 7.5)
for 30 min at 37°C. Following incubation, samples were boiled
in reducing sample buffer and subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide
gel electrophoresis. A shift in electrophoretic mobility, indicative
of covalent modification by HAUb, was observed for both the
MCMV and EBV constructs after silver staining (Fig.
2 A, upper
panel). The identity of the covalent enzyme-HAUb adducts was
confirmed by immunoblotting (Fig.
2 A, lower panel), using an
HRP-conjugated anti-HA antibody (3F10; 1:4,000 dilution ratio;
Roche) in conjunction with the Western Lightning chemiluminescence
reagent kit (Perkin Elmer).
Are the proteins under investigation indeed cysteine proteases?
Pretreatment of EBV
205 or MCMV
285 with 10 mM N-ethylmaleimide
(NEM) for 10 min completely blocked labeling with the probe
(Fig.
2 A). Replacement of the putative active-site cysteine
by alanine (C61A) abrogated labeling with the probe for EBV
205 (Fig.
2 A). In the case of MCMV, we also constructed a longer
variant that terminates at position 575 (MCMV
575). Although
we were unable to obtain a pure preparation owing to low expression
levels and susceptibility to proteolytic attack, a polypeptide
of the expected molecular mass (62 kDa) was clearly detectable
by immunoblotting, using a penta-His (QIAGEN) antibody (Fig.
2B). This variant likewise reacted with HAUbVME in NEM-sensitive
fashion, and a nonconservative mutation of the putative active
site (C23A) resulted in complete loss of labeling with the probe
(Fig.
2B). Taken together with the established specificity of
the electrophilic derivatives of Ub, we conclude that both the
MCMV- and EBV-derived fragments are Ub-specific cysteine proteases.
We next tested the ability of the enzymes to cleave Ub C-terminal 7-amido-4-methylcoumarin (Ub-AMC; Boston Biochem) (5). Ub-AMC hydrolysis assays were performed in reaction buffer supplemented with bovine serum albumin (50 µg/ml) by incubating the enzymes (100 pM) with a 1,000-fold excess of Ub-AMC (100 nM). EBV205, MCMV285, and MCMV575 efficiently hydrolyzed Ub-AMC, as had been shown for UL36USP (9). In accordance with HAUbVME labeling experiments, Ub-AMC hydrolysis was sensitive to NEM and was not observed for the active-site mutants, corroborating the identity of the proposed catalytic cysteine residue (Fig. 3 and data not shown). While a minimal DUB domain extending little beyond the active-site residues is active, we sought to determine whether the shorter constructs are also sufficient to confer substrate specificity. To address this issue, we tested the potential of several inhibitors to block DUB activity in Ub-AMC hydrolysis assays. Enzymes were preincubated for 1 h with a 100-fold molar excess of electrophilic derivatives of Ub, SUMO, Nedd8, and ISG15, all carrying a VME moiety as the electrophile at their C terminus (8). While UbVME completely inhibited hydrolytic activity, none of the Ub-related inhibitors impaired DUB activity (Fig. 3). We conclude that a domain consisting of little more than 200 aa, as exemplified by EBV205, mediates both catalytic activity and specificity towards Ub.
In summary, we have demonstrated that a DUB activity previously
identified in HSV-1 is conserved across all subfamilies of the
Herpesviridae. Unexpectedly, a comparatively small structurally
conserved module of

200 aa is sufficient to confer both hydrolytic
activity and Ub specificity. Sequence elements adjacent to the
200-aa core domain may be required to confer additional specificity
for ubiquitinated substrates in vivo or to mediate other interactions,
for example, those required for subcellular localization. It
will be necessary to raise antibodies against the N-terminal
domain of these tegument proteins to establish their occurrence
in virus-infected cells, to explore precursor-product relationships,
and to relate these parameters to the deubiquitinating activity
associated with them. Having demonstrated the enzymatic activity
embedded within the tegument proteins of the alpha-, beta-,
and gammaherpesviruses, we postulate an important and conserved
function for this activity, the identification of which will
require the creation of suitable mutants in the context of the
intact genomes of the corresponding viruses.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was carried out with financial support from the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) and from Astra Zeneca. C.S. is supported
by a EMBO long-term fellowship (ALTF 187-2005); G.A.K. is supported
by a NIH postdoctoral fellowship (GM072352-02); and L.M.K is
supported by a NIH training grant (T32 AI07638).
EBV DNA was a kind gift of Eric Johannsen and Elliot Kieff.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Present address: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142. Phone: (617) 324-1878. Fax: (617) 452-3566. E-mail:
ploegh{at}wi.mit.edu.

Present address: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142. 

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Journal of Virology, December 2005, p. 15582-15585, Vol. 79, No. 24
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.79.24.15582-15585.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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