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Journal of Virology, October 2006, p. 10274-10280, Vol. 80, No. 20
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00995-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Human Cytomegalovirus UL84 Protein Contains Two Nuclear Export Signals and Shuttles between the Nucleus and the Cytoplasm
Peter Lischka,
Claudia Rauh,
Regina Mueller, and
Thomas Stamminger*
Institut für Klinische und Molekulare Virologie der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany
Received 15 May 2006/
Accepted 20 July 2006

ABSTRACT
Previous studies defined pUL84 of human cytomegalovirus as an
essential regulatory protein with nuclear localization that
was proposed to act during initiation of viral-DNA synthesis.
Recently, we demonstrated that a complex domain of 282 amino
acids within pUL84 functions as a nonconventional nuclear localization
signal. Sequence inspection of this domain revealed the presence
of motifs with homology to leucine-rich nuclear export signals.
Here, we report the identification of two functional, autonomous
nuclear export signals and show that pUL84 acts as a CRM-1-dependent
nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein. This suggests an unexpected
cytoplasmic role for this essential viral regulatory protein.

TEXT
The open reading frame UL84 of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)
encodes an essential regulatory protein that appears to be localized
within the cell nucleus (
20,
33,
35). Initially, pUL84 was identified
as a direct interaction partner of the nuclear HCMV regulatory
protein IE2-p86 (
28), which is the major transcription-activating
protein of HCMV (
22). Studies concerning the functional consequence
of the pUL84-IE2 interaction revealed, on one hand, that this
interaction down-regulates the transactivation activity of IE2
on some early promoters (
13). On the other hand, it has been
reported that this pUL84-IE2 complex is required for the activation
of a bidirectional promoter located within the origin of lytic
DNA replication (
ori-Lyt) (
34). Since pUL84 had additionally
been shown (i) to be essential for virus replication (
33,
35)
and (ii) to be the only noncore protein required for origin-dependent
DNA replication in a transient replication assay (
24,
27), pUL84
was proposed to act as an initiator protein for viral-DNA synthesis
of HCMV (
34). The initiator proteins of some other herpesviruses
were demonstrated to exert an inherent catalytic activity that
may unwind a specific region of DNA within
ori-Lyt, thus allowing
the assembly of the DNA replication machinery (
1,
2,
5,
9).
In line with this, pUL84 has been shown to display UTPase activity
and to exhibit some homology to the DExD/H box family of helicases
(
3). It is noteworthy that bioinformatic studies of this protein
did not support the classification of pUL84 as a DExD/H box
helicase but detected a homology to dUTPases (
4). Taken together,
pUL84 encodes an essential viral regulatory protein that is
supposed to be active in the cell nucleus.
In this regard, we previously unraveled the molecular mechanism of pUL84 nuclear trafficking and could demonstrate that a nonconventional nuclear targeting domain comprising 282 amino acids within pUL84 mediates its interaction with importin alpha proteins (20). Interestingly, sequence inspection of the amino acid sequence of this nonconventional nuclear localization signal (NLS) revealed the presence of two small, leucine-rich regions that exactly match the consensus sequence of a classical nuclear export signal (NES) (20) (Fig. 1A). Both motifs could be aligned to confirmed NESs of other proteins (Fig. 1B), and one of the two motifs, UL84-NES2, yielded a positive NES motif score when we analyzed the HCMV UL84 primary sequence using an NES prediction server (16). In order to determine whether one of the putative pUL84 NESs is able to direct nuclear export of a heterologous protein, we performed microinjection experiments exactly as described previously (19). For this, we fused amino acids 228 to 237 and 359 to 366 of pUL84 to the C terminus of glutathione S-transferase (GST) (Fig. 1C), which served as a carrier protein. GST was used, since previous experiments showed that this protein on its own does not relocalize into the cytoplasm upon microinjection into the nucleus due to its capacity to form high-molecular-weight dimers (6, 25). The resulting recombinant fusion proteins were purified from Escherichia coli (Fig. 1D) and microinjected into the nuclei of HeLa cells in combination with rabbit immunoglobulin G (IgG) as a marker for the injection site (Fig. 1E, a to d). One hour after injection, the cells were fixed and double immunostained for GST and IgG (19). As shown in Fig. 1E, a to d, the coinjected rabbit IgG was detected exclusively within the nucleus, whereas GST-UL84-NES1 or GST-UL84-NES2 was translocated from the nuclear injection site to the cytoplasm in significant amounts. To exclude passive diffusion, we also injected the fusion proteins into the cytoplasm of HeLa cells. No nuclear accumulation of the respective proteins could be detected (Fig. 1E, e to h). This indicates that each transport signal is sufficient to target the GST protein for nuclear export and thus functions as an autonomous NES. Furthermore, it suggests that pUL84 may be capable of nucleocytoplasmic shuttling.
In order to prove this, we next performed an interspecies heterokaryon
analysis using HCMV-infected primary human foreskin fibroblasts
(HFF) (
19). For this, HCMV (strain AD169)-infected cells were
fused with nonpermissive murine NIH 3T3 cells in order to produce
heterokaryons (Fig.
2A). After fusion, the cells were fixed
and the localization of viral nucleoproteins was assessed by
indirect immunofluorescence. Murine nuclei were identified by
counterstaining them with Hoechst 33258 dye, yielding a characteristic
punctate heterochromatin staining (Fig.
2A, a). If pUL84 constitutes
a bona fide nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein, it would be
expected to move from the infected HFF nuclei into the cytoplasm
and subsequently to enter those murine nuclei that are part
of the heterokaryon. As shown in Fig.
2A, b, by 3.5 h postfusion,
pUL84 had migrated into the murine nuclei. In contrast, IE1,
which is an immediate-early regulatory protein of HCMV, was
not detected in murine nuclei of interspecies heterokaryons
(Fig.
2A, c). Thus, we conclude that in infected cells, pUL84
continuously shuttles between the nucleus and the cytoplasm.
Next, we asked whether nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of pUL84
also occurs in the absence of additional viral factors (Fig.
2B). To investigate this, HeLa cells were cotransfected with
a pUL84 expression plasmid (
20) and either the internal control
plasmid CFN-ßGAL or CFNrev-ßGAL (
19,
26).
CFNrev-ßGAL encodes ß-galactosidase (ß-Gal)
fused to an NLS and an NES; thus, this fusion protein shuttles
between the nucleus and the cytoplasm (Fig.
2B, c). CFN-ßGAL
expresses only an NLS-ß-Gal fusion protein and is
therefore restricted to nuclei (Fig.
2B, g). Transfected cells
were allowed to synthesize pUL84, together with one of the control
proteins, and were subsequently subjected to heterokaryon formation.
After fixation, the cells were costained for pUL84 and ß-Gal
(
19). In interspecies heterokaryons that coexpressed pUL84 and
ß-Gal-NLS/NES, both proteins were observed in murine
and human nuclei (Fig.
2B, a to d). In contrast, when the localization
of pUL84 and ß-Gal-NLS was assessed, pUL84 alone was
found to be present in the human and murine nuclei, whereas
ß-Gal-NLS was detected exclusively in the human nuclei
(Fig.
2B, e to h). This suggests that the pUL84 nucleocytoplasmic
shuttling activity is not dependent on either viral infection
or the expression of HCMV-encoded cofactors.
The nuclear export of proteins bearing a leucine-rich NES is usually mediated by the export receptor CRM1/exportin1 (18). The antibiotic leptomycin B (LMB) specifically blocks CRM1-mediated nuclear export by disrupting the interaction of NESs with the receptor (10, 14, 15, 32). To investigate the contribution of the CRM1 pathway to the nuclear export of pUL84, HeLa cells were cotransfected with a pUL84 expression plasmid and a control plasmid encoding the CRM1-independent nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein pUL69 (19). Subsequently, heterokaryon assays were performed as described above, with the exception that 3 h prior to and following heterokaryon formation, the cells were treated with 2.5 ng/ml LMB to inhibit CRM1 function. In the absence of LMB, both proteins, pUL84 and pUL69, could be detected in murine nuclei after fusion with transfected HeLa cells (Fig. 2C, a to d). In contrast, treatment with LMB completely blocked shuttling of pUL84 but did not prevent the translocation of pUL69 in the same heterokaryon (Fig. 2C, e to h), indicating that pUL84 uses the CRM1-mediated nuclear export pathway.
pUL84 encodes two NESs that are equally capable of mediating the nuclear export of a heterologous protein (Fig. 1). Although the physiological significance of two NESs in pUL84 is presently unclear, this finding is not without precedent, since multiple leucine-rich NESs have been uncovered in a series of proteins of cellular or viral origin (7, 23, 29). In order to analyze whether the two identified NESs represent the only export signals within pUL84, we next aimed at inactivating these signals in the context of the wild-type protein. It has been demonstrated that substitution of alanine for any leucine within the core motif of the NES abrogates export activity (12, 29). Thus, we generated eukaryotic expression plasmids that contained the mutant UL84 sequences indicated in Fig. 3. However, since both export signals are located within the pUL84 importin alpha binding domain (20), we were concerned that mutations at these sites might affect the nuclear import of the protein. Therefore, we initially determined the subcellular localization of each of the mutants in transfected HeLa cells. Figure 3A summarizes the results of immunolocalization experiments. It shows that all pUL84 mutants carrying mutations in UL84-NES1 showed nuclear localization, as did the wild-type protein (Fig. 3A, a to h). In contrast, when leucine residues at positions 359/361 or 364/366 within UL84-NES2 were replaced by alanines, the respective mutants displayed a partial cytoplasmic localization (Fig. 3A, k and l, and m and n). In light of these results, we generated plasmid LLL228/30/59AAA, encoding pUL84 with mutations at key residues in both UL84-NES1 and UL84-NES2 that were predicted to inhibit nuclear export but not nuclear import (Fig. 3A, o and p). When we subjected this mutant to the interspecies heterokaryon assay, we observed that the nuclear-export capability of the pUL84 mutant was completely abolished, excluding the existence of other, unrecognized NESs (Fig. 4, i to l). However, when heterokaryon assays were performed with mutants LL228/30AA and L359A, which inactivated only one of the two NESs, weak pUL84 staining was detected in murine nuclei (Fig. 4, a to d and e to h). This indicates that both signals contribute independently to the nucleocytoplasmic shuttling activity of the wild-type protein.
Taken together, these experiments describe a novel nuclear-export
activity of pUL84 and thus define this protein as the second
nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein to be identified in HCMV.
This suggests an unexpected cytoplasmic role for this essential
regulatory protein. Although additional studies are needed to
elucidate the relevance of pUL84 shuttling, the presently available
evidence indicates that this capacity might be crucial for its
biological function, as underlined by the presence of two functional
NESs embedded in a highly complex bidirectional-transport domain.
This conclusion leads us to speculate that pUL84 might carry
out an unknown function in the cytoplasm, as has recently been
shown for the herpes simplex virus type 1 shuttling protein
ICP27 (
17); alternatively, pUL84 might act in addition to pUL69
as a carrier that transports macromolecules between the two
cellular compartments. Recently, pUL69 was defined as an HCMV-encoded
RNA-binding protein with activities in the nuclear export of
RNA (
21,
30). Since RNA binding could also be observed for pUL84
(T. Stamminger, unpublished data), it is tempting to speculate
that pUL84 may also function in the nuclear export of a subset
of viral RNAs. However, since pUL84 has been implicated in viral-DNA
replication, studies to elucidate the relevance of nucleocytoplasmic
shuttling for the initiation of viral-DNA replication will be
of particular importance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Matthias Dobbelstein (Göttingen, Germany) for
providing plasmids.
This work was supported by the Wilhelm Sander Stiftung, the DFG (SFB473), and the IZKF Erlangen.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut für Klinische und Molekulare Virologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schlossgarten 4, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany. Phone: 49 9131 8526783. Fax: 49 9131 8522101. E-mail:
tsstammi{at}viro.med.uni-erlangen.de.


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Journal of Virology, October 2006, p. 10274-10280, Vol. 80, No. 20
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00995-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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