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Journal of Virology, July 2007, p. 6899-6908, Vol. 81, No. 13
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.02330-05
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Joanna Dembowy,
Laura Pacione,1 and
Martha Brown1*
Dept. of Medical Genetics and Microbiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada1
Received 4 November 2005/ Accepted 11 April 2007
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Direct labeling of virions with fluorescent dyes, like carboxyfluorescein, has made it possible to follow virions by microscopy during transport to the host cell nucleus. In experiments initiated to study the transport of different adenovirus serotypes, we observed an atypical trafficking pattern in 293 cells, even with Ad5. Further investigation focused on Ad5 and addressed microtubule-mediated transport in relation to the pattern observed. The juxtanuclear virion clusters in 293 cells revealed a pathway which is microtubule dependent but is not required for successful genome delivery.
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E1
E3 viruses, expressing ß-galactosidase and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), respectively, from a cassette (cytomegalovirus immediate-early promoter, LacZ, or EGFP coding sequence, simian virus 40 poly(A) signal) inserted in reverse orientation, in place of the E1 region. Ad5.CMV-LacZ was purchased from Quantum Biotechnologies, Inc., Montreal, Canada (now Qbiogene, Inc., Carlsbad, CA). Ad5EGFP was generated in this laboratory by homologous recombination in 293 cells. All virions were propagated in 293 cells at an adsorbed multiplicity of infection (MOI) of about 0.2 to 2 and were used in experiments at passage level 3. Mature virions (
= 1.34 g/cm3) were purified by two cycles of cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation. The virus band from a step gradient of CsCl (1.2 g/ml in 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.1, underlaid with 1.4 g/ml in 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.1), spun at 120,000 x g for 1 h, was recovered and further purified on a self-forming gradient of CsCl (initial density, 1.4 g/ml) spun at 120,000 x g for 20 h. Purified virus was desalted by dialysis against three changes of buffer containing 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.8, 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM MgCl2, and 10% glycerol. The virion concentration was determined by disrupting the virions in a 50-µl sample (30) and then measuring the absorbance of the suspension at 260 nm, using the following equation: 1 A260 = 1.1 x 1012 particles/ml (27). Infectivity was determined by endpoint dilution in 60-well Terasaki plates (Nunc) as described previously (7).
Intracellular trafficking of labeled virions.
Virions were labeled with 5- (and 6-) carboxyfluorescein, succinimidyl ester (Molecular Probes) as described by Miyazawa et al. (31). Infectivity was not reduced by the labeling process (results not shown). For the intracellular trafficking experiments, cells were seeded in LabTek chamber slides (Nunc) at densities of 4 x 104 to 8 x 104 cells per chamber or on 12-mm coverslips in a 24-well plate at a density of 105 cells per well. Cells were infected 2 days after seeding using labeled virus (
1011 particles/ml.;
105 particles/cell) in an adsorption volume of 0.15 ml per chamber of the chamber slide or 0.25 ml per well of a 24-well plate. Under these conditions, typically less than 10% of the inoculum is adsorbed (data not shown). Prior to infection, cells were rinsed with cold binding buffer (minimal essential medium with 10% FCS, an additional 1% bovine serum albumin [BSA], and 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.3), and then virus, diluted in cold binding buffer, was applied. The cells were held at 4°C for 60 min to allow virus adsorption but not entry and thereby synchronize the infection. Unadsorbed virus was removed by washing the cells three times with cold binding buffer, and slides were fixed immediately with 4% paraformaldehyde or incubated with warm binding buffer at 37°C to allow the entry process to continue. Slides were usually fixed 60 min after warming, but incubation times as short as 20 min and as long as 16 h were used in some experiments. Slides were mounted with 50% glycerol in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]-octane (20 mg/ml) and 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) (0.25 µg/ml) and examined with a Leica DMA fluorescence microscope, using the 63x oil objective and the 1.0x, 1.25x, or 1.6x magnifier. Images were captured with a Hamamatsu charge-coupled-device camera (C4742-95) and processed using Openlab imaging software, version 2.0.7 (Improvision, Inc.) and Adobe Photoshop, version 6.0.
Immunofluorescence microscopy.
Primary monoclonal antibody against the Golgi protein with a molecular weight of 58,000 (58K) and secondary tetramethyl rhodamine isothiocyanate-conjugated antimurine antibody, as well as Cy3-conjugated monoclonal antibody against ß-tubulin, were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Canada, Ltd. Polyclonal antibody against
-tubulin and Texas Red-conjugated antirabbit antibody were gifts from Andrew Wilde, University of Toronto. Monoclonal antibody (clone FK2) against multiubiquitin chains (13) and polyclonal antibody against the 20s proteasomal subunit were gifts from John Brumell, The Hospital for Sick Children.
Cells fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde were permeabilized with PBT (0.1% Triton X in PBS) for 15 min at room temperature and then blocked with 5% BSA-PBT at room temperature for 45 min before incubation with primary antibody (diluted in 5% BSA-PBT) for 45 to 60 min at 37°C. After three 5-min washes with PBS at room temperature, cells were incubated with secondary antibody (also diluted in 5% BSA-PBT) for 45 min at 37°C. Cells were then washed with PBT (two 5-min washes), followed by PBS (two 5-min washes). Coverslips were mounted in PBS containing DAPI (0.25 µg/ml) with or without 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]-octane.
Electron microscopy.
293 cells were seeded onto 18-mm coverslips in six-well tissue culture dishes (3 x 105 cells/well). The next day, cells were rinsed three times with ice-cold binding buffer and infected with 0.6 ml per well of the same labeled virus suspension used in the tracking experiments (
1011 particles/ml;
105 particles/cell) at 4°C for 60 min to synchronize infection. Unbound viruses were then removed by rinsing the cells with ice-cold binding buffer. Subsequently, cells were incubated in warm binding buffer at 37°C for 90 min. After infection, cells were rinsed twice with PBS, fixed with 2% glutaraldehyde for 30 min at room temperature, washed with PBS and then 0.1 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, and stored in the same buffer until further processed.
To continue processing, cells were fixed with 1% osmium tetroxide in 0.1 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, for 30 min and then washed twice (5 min each time) in 0.1 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, followed by two washes (5 min each) in distilled water. Cells were stained for 30 min in 1% aqueous uranyl acetate, followed by three washes (5 min each) in distilled water. The cells were dehydrated through a graded series of ethanol and then infiltrated and embedded in Epon. Sections were stained with 2% uranyl acetate and 0.2% lead citrate. The samples were examined with a FEI Tecnai 20 electron microscope at 80 kV. Processing of the samples from the osmium tetroxide fixation step onwards and assistance with viewing the stained sections were provided by Robert Temkin, Advanced Bioimaging Centre, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto.
Microtubule disruption experiments. Nocodazole (Sigma-Aldrich) was prepared as a 10 mM stock solution in dimethyl sulfoxide, stored in aliquots at 20°C, and diluted to a concentration of 30 µM in culture medium or in binding buffer immediately prior to use. Colchicine (Sigma-Aldrich) was prepared as a 20 mM stock solution in distilled deionized water, stored in aliquots at 20°C, and diluted to a concentration of 100 µM in culture medium immediately prior to use. 293 and A549 cells were seeded on 12-mm coverslips in 24-well plates (1.5 x 105 cells/well) for microscopy or in 6-well plates (6 x 105 cells/well) for analysis by flow cytometry and used the following day.
For analysis of virion trafficking by microscopy, cells were treated for 60 min at 37°C with 30 µM nocodazole in binding buffer prior to infection with carboxyfluorescein-labeled Ad5 diluted in binding buffer containing 30 µM nocodazole. Following adsorption at 4°C for 60 min, the inoculum was removed, cells were washed with binding buffer containing 30 µM nocodazole, and fresh binding buffer containing 30 µM nocodazole was added. Cells were incubated at 37°C for 90 min and then fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and stained for ß-tubulin to confirm the absence of microtubules.
For experiments to monitor the effect of microtubule disruption on genome delivery, nocodazole pretreatment was extended to 2 h to minimize the number of surviving microtubules, and adsorption took place at 37°C to avoid any alterations to the cells induced by exposure to low temperature. The input MOI was based on results of preliminary dose-response experiments and was chosen to give a detectable number of EGFP-positive cells, but less than 50% of the population, at 12 h postinfection (p.i.). Accordingly, cells were pretreated with 30 µM nocodazole, diluted in complete medium containing 10% FCS, for 2 h at 37°C prior to infection with 0.6 ml virus inoculum (
2 x 107 particles/ml of Ad5EGFP diluted in binding buffer with 30 µM nocodazole;
20 particles/cell). Following adsorption at 37°C for 60 min, the inoculum was removed and cells were rinsed twice with complete medium containing 30 µM nocodazole. Fresh medium containing 30 µM nocodazole was added, and cells were returned to 37°C. Mock-treated cells, infected but not exposed to nocodazole, served as controls. At 12 h p.i., Ad5EGFP-infected cells on coverslips were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and stained for ß-tubulin to confirm the absence of microtubules. For flow cytometry, cells were trypsinized at 12 h p.i., collected by centrifugation at 300 x g for 5 min, resuspended in 4% paraformaldehyde, pH 7.2, held for 15 min at room temperature, and collected by centrifugation at 300 x g for 5 min. Cells were then resuspended in 500 µl PBS and passed through a 70-µm nylon cell strainer (BD Falcon) to remove clumps. Samples were analyzed on an EPICS Elite cell sorter (Beckman-Coulter).
In flow cytometry experiments using colchicine to disrupt microtubules, 293 cells were pretreated with 100 µM colchicine for 2 h on ice and then for 2 h at 37°C prior to infection. The colchicine concentration was maintained at 100 µM during the virus adsorption period at 4°C and the subsequent incubation period at 37°C. Conditions for infection and subsequent processing were the same as those described for the flow cytometry experiments using nocodazole. In the colchicine experiments, cells on coverslips were treated with Triton X (0.1% in PEM buffer [100 mM piperazine-N,N'-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid), 1 mM EGTA, 1 mM MgCl2, pH 6.9]) for 5 min and then rinsed three times with PEM buffer to extract soluble tubulin prior to staining residual microtubules with anti-ß-tubulin (28).
Ad5.CMV-LacZ was also used to monitor genome delivery in the presence or absence of nocodazole by microscopic examination of infected 293 cell cultures stained with 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-ß-D-galactopyranoside (X-Gal). The pretreatment and infection conditions were the same as those used with Ad5EGFP. At 12 h p.i., cells were fixed with 2% formaldehyde for 5 min at room temperature and then washed with PBS and incubated with X-Gal (diluted from a stock solution of 20 mg/ml in dimethylformamide to 1 mg/ml in PBS containing 5 mM potassium ferricyanide, 5 mM potassium ferrocyanide, 2 mM magnesium chloride) for 1 h at 37°C. The X-Gal solution was replaced with PBS, and cultures were examined, using a Leica DMIL microscope, for blue cells, indicative of ß-galactosidase activity and successful genome delivery.
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FIG. 1. Labeled virions before and after internalization. Cells were incubated with labeled Ad5 ( 1011 particles/ml; 105 particles/cell) for 60 min at 4°C. Unadsorbed virus was removed, and cells were fixed immediately (a to d) or fresh binding buffer was added and cells were transferred to 37°C for 60 min before fixation (e to h). Each field was photographed with a filter for fluorescein (green signal) and a filter for DAPI (blue signal), and the images were overlaid using Openlab imaging software, version 2.0.7.
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FIG. 2. Intracellular location of Ad5 virions in 293 cells. 293 cells were incubated with labeled Ad5 for 60 min at 4°C, unadsorbed virus was removed, and the cells were fed with fresh binding buffer and shifted to 37°C for 60 min before fixation with 4% paraformaldehyde. (A) (a) Nucleus stained with DAPI. (b) Overlay of fluorescein signal (virions) with DAPI signal (nucleus) showing virions accumulated near the nucleus. The arrowhead indicates a juxtanuclear virion cluster; the arrows point to virions in a perinuclear distribution at the nuclear periphery. (B) Following fixation, Golgi bodies were identified by immunostaining with primary antibody against the Golgi 58K protein and secondary antibody labeled with tetramethyl rhodamine isothiocyanate (red). Overlay of the virus and Golgi body signals is shown (d). The region indicated with an asterisk in panels b, c, and d is shown at higher magnification in panels e, f, and g, respectively. (C) The MTOC was located by immunostaining with primary antibody against -tubulin and secondary antibody labeled with Texas Red (red). Virus is shown in green and nuclei in blue. Overlays of virus and -tubulin signals (panels a and c and panels b and d) are shown in panels e and f, respectively. (D) Two dividing cells with virions clustered at the spindle poles. Chromosomes are shown in blue. Overlay of virus and DAPI signals (panels a and c and panels b and d) are shown in panels e and f, respectively.
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To determine whether the juxtanuclear clusters represented intact virions rather than degradation products, thin sections of infected cells were examined by electron microscopy. Virions which appeared to be intact were readily found in the "indented region" of the nucleus. Figure 3 (upper and lower panels) shows two representative fields, each at low, medium, and high magnification. In one field, multiple virions are contained within a single vesicle (Fig. 3a to c), whereas in the other field, virions appear to be in the cytoplasm in close proximity to small empty vesicles (Fig. 3d to f) whose identity is unknown but which might represent Golgi vesicles sectioned on a tangent.
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FIG. 3. Examination of infected 293 cells by electron microscopy. Cells were infected and processed for electron microscopy as described in Materials and Methods. (a to c) One field at low, medium, and high magnification, respectively. (d to f) A different field at low, medium, and high magnification, respectively. Arrows are positioned to indicate the same site within the cell at different magnifications. An asterisk marks an individual virion in panels c and f. The nucleus (N) is identified where visible.
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FIG. 4. Formation of virion clusters is dependent on intact microtubules. (A) 293 cells were mock treated or treated with 30 µM nocodazole for 1 h prior to infection and maintained in 30 µM nocodazole during virus adsorption and internalization as described in Materials and Methods. Following internalization of virions at 37°C for 60 min, cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and stained with Cy3-labeled antibody against ß-tubulin. (a) Overlay of virus signal (green) with DAPI signal (blue) in the absence of nocodazole. (b) Overlay of virus signal (green) with DAPI signal (blue) in cells treated with nocodazole (+ Noc). Perinuclear distribution of virions is indicated with an arrow. (c) ß-Tubulin in cells shown in panel a. (d) ß-Tubulin in cells shown in panel b. (B) A549 cell from a culture pretreated with 30 µM nocodazole, infected and processed as described for A. Overlay of virus signal with DAPI signal is shown in panel c. Perinuclear distribution of virions is indicated with an arrow in panels a and c.
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FIG. 5. Infection with Ad5EGFP in the presence or absence of nocodazole. 293 and A549 cells were treated with 30 µM nocodazole or left untreated and then infected with Ad5EGFP at a low MOI and fixed 12 h p.i., as described in Materials and Methods. Representative fields are shown. (A) Nuclei were stained with DAPI. (a) A549 cells in the absence of nocodazole. (b) EGFP signal from the field shown in panel a. (c) EGFP signal from the field shown in panel d. (d) 293 cells in the absence of nocodazole. (e) A549 cells treated with 30 µM nocodazole. (f) EGFP signal from the field shown in panel e. (g) EGFP signal from the field shown in panel h. (h) 293 cells treated with 30 µM nocodazole. (B) FACS analysis of cells from the same experiment shown in A. Cells were processed for flow cytometry as described in Materials and Methods. Each curve represents the cell population from one well of a six-well plate.
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TABLE 1. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis of cells infected with Ad5EGFP in the presence or absence of nocodazole or colchicinea
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FIG. 6. Tubulin in colchicine-treated 293 cells immediately prior to infection and at 12 h p.i. with Ad5EGFP. As part of the flow cytometry experiments (Table 1, colchicine), cells seeded on coverslips were fixed with or without extraction of soluble tubulin immediately prior to infection (a to d) or at 12 h p.i. (e to h). (a and e) Untreated cells with total tubulin. (b and f) Treated cells with total tubulin. (c, d, g, and h) Treated cells with residual tubulin following extraction of soluble tubulin.
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TABLE 2. Numbers of cells expressing ß-galactosidase in 293 cell cultures infected with Ad5.CMV-LacZ in the presence or absence of nocodazolea
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Localization of virions near the MTOC, within the "indented" region formed by the nucleus, in 293 cells is consistent with the minus end-directed transport of incoming virions along microtubules, as shown by Suomalainen et al. (41) and Leopold et al. (24). However, it is not clear why the majority of incoming virions remain in stable clusters near the MTOC in 293 cells (Fig. 1e) and some A549 cells (14; data not shown) but not other cells. Initially, it was thought that clustering of the virions might reflect a cytoskeletal organization related to the irregularly shaped nuclei or to the neuronal origin of 293 cells (35). However, Shayakhmetov et al. (37) showed juxtanuclear clusters of chimeric Ad5 (with Ad35 fiber knobs) in hematopoietic cells with regular oval-shaped nuclei. This observation is meaningful in that the fiber knobs from Ad35 (species B) confer a binding specificity for CD46, rather than CAR, as the primary receptor. Clustering at the MTOC therefore is not unique to cells with irregularly shaped nuclei or to infections mediated by virion binding to CAR.
It is not known whether the fluorescent clusters represent virions contained within vesicles or free in the cytoplasm, since both types were seen by electron microscopy (Fig. 3). Given the current model for adenovirus entry (29), the Ad5 clusters likely represent virions released from vesicles and then carried along microtubules to the MTOC. No colocalization was evident by immunostaining with antibody against EEA-1, transferrin receptor, or LAMP-1 as markers for early endosomes, recycling endosomes, and late endosomes/lysosomes, respectively (data not shown). Formation of virion clusters near the MTOC may reflect the activation of signal transduction pathways by high levels of input virus binding to the surfaces of 293 cells. Increasing dilution of the labeled Ad5 inoculum gave a fluorescent signal that was less intense and still localized to the "nuclear indentation" of 293 cells, but even at the limit of detection, the adsorbed MOI was several hundred particles per cell (not shown).
The virion clusters are similar in appearance to aggresomes, which represent accumulations of protein near the MTOC, often in association with components of the protein degradation pathway (15, 21). Aggresome formation is microtubule dependent and typically is accompanied by a major reorganization of vimentin filaments to form a cage around the protein inclusion (15, 21, 22). Although aggresome formation is enhanced in the presence of proteasome inhibitors or when certain proteins are overexpressed (44), the adenovirus E1B 55K protein, along with p53, has been reported to form aggresomes in uninfected 293 cells at normal expression levels (25). In the current study, formation of the virion clusters, like that of aggresomes, was microtubule dependent (Fig. 4), but vimentin remained as extended filaments throughout the cells and did not form a cage around the virion cluster (not shown). Moreover, the virion clusters did not recruit the 20s proteasome subunit, nor were they ubiquitinated, as determined by immunofluorescent staining with anti-20s and anti-FK2 antibodies, respectively (not shown). Brown et al. (6) reported that the p53/E1B 55K inclusions, which form at the MTOC, dissociate from the spindle poles in mitotic 293 cells. In contrast, virions that have already become associated with the MTOC remain attached at both spindle poles during mitosis (Fig. 2). Taken together, the properties of the virion clusters suggest that they likely do not represent classical aggresomes.
Stable association of Ad5 virions with spindle poles of dividing 293 cells (Fig. 2D) is consistent with strong association of virions with the MTOC. Other studies have reported virion clusters at the spindle poles of mitotic A549 cells (17, 24) and at the MTOC of enucleated A549 cells (4). Virions were more likely to accumulate at the nuclei of A549 cells rather than the MTOC when the nuclear membrane was intact (4), but even so, virion clusters were noted at the MTOC in some cells (17). Strunze et al. (40) have linked virion accumulation at the MTOC to the absence of functional CRM1, a nuclear export factor proposed to facilitate detachment of virions from microtubules at the nuclear periphery and thus allow attachment to the nuclear pores. In the case of 293 cells, most of the virions clustered at the MTOC even in the presence of intact nuclei and with no inhibitors (Fig. 1 and 2). The stable association of virions with the MTOC might be expected to compromise infectivity, making 293 cells less sensitive to infection, but in fact, 293 cells are no less sensitive than other cells to productive infection (8). This observation, coupled with the ability to detect clusters up to 16 h p.i., a time when progeny virus is already being produced (8), suggested that the clusters did not represent virions en route to successful genome delivery. The use of nocodazole and colchicine showed that intact microtubules are required for cluster formation but not for successful genome delivery, thereby confirming that the clusters are not an essential part of the infectious pathway in 293 cells and showing that the pathway leading to genome delivery could be uncoupled from bulk virion transport along microtubules.
These results support the notion put forward by Glotzer et al. (17), based on studies with A549 and HeLa cells, that virions can be transported to the nucleus along a microtubule-independent pathway. As noted by many authors, microtubule disruption resulted in dispersion of the majority of virions throughout the cell (11, 17, 24, 26) (Fig. 4). Even so, a detectable proportion of the virion population could still be found at the nuclear periphery, as determined by tracking fluorescent virions (17) (Fig. 4 of current study) and by electron microscopy (11). Indeed, nuclear targeting of the bulk virion population appeared to improve in the absence of microtubules following nocodazole treatment (Fig. 4). Importantly, viral gene expression was not compromised when microtubules were disrupted (17), as reported for 293 and A549 cells in the current study (Fig. 5; Tables 1 and 2). The increased fluorescence intensity from EGFP expression in repeated experiments with nocodazole-treated cells is unexplained; a similar increase was not seen when microtubules were disrupted with colchicine. Giannakakou et al. (16) reported enhanced nucleus-directed transport of labeled Ad, as well as enhanced nuclear delivery of p53, in A549 and HeLa cells when microtubule dynamics were suppressed by low doses of nocodazole (1 to 3 nM). In that case, however, the low dose of nocodazole (1 to 3 nM) was not sufficient to depolymerize microtubules, whereas in the current study, a higher concentration of nocodazole (30 µM) clearly disrupted the microtubules.
A high MOI, typically used for trafficking experiments, facilitates tracking of the bulk virion population but can obscure the pathway taken by the minor virion population en route to successful genome delivery. For this reason, experiments to determine the effect of microtubule disruption on infectivity were done with a low MOI, sufficient to infect only a small proportion of the cells, and cells were scored for genome delivery before progeny virus could spread to infect neighboring cells. The rationale was that if intact microtubules are required for virion transport, depolymerization of microtubules should result in a lower proportion of productively infected cells unless there was an extensive network of microtubules that survived treatment. Using an input MOI of
20 to 40 virus particles per cell, in the absence of nocodazole or colchicine,
35 to 40% of 293 cells and
4 to 6% of A549 cells showed a detectable EGFP signal 12 h p.i. (Table 1). The apparent discrepancy in sensitivity between 293 and A549 cells likely reflects the fact that endogenous E1 expression by 293 cells facilitates replication of the Ad5EGFP genome (whose E1 region is deleted), thus increasing the copy number of the reporter gene. In A549 cells, the Ad5EGFP genome does not replicate, and thus, the number of EGFP gene copies is the number of genomes successfully delivered to the nucleus. Given that less than 10% of the inoculum virus is adsorbed under the infection conditions used, an input MOI of
20 to 40 particles per cell should result in an adsorbed MOI of
2 to 4 particles per cell. The Poisson distribution predicts that at an adsorbed MOI of three particles per cell, 38% of the cells are likely to be infected with four or more particles while 4% of the cells are likely to be infected with seven or more particles (12). Accordingly, the proportion of EGFP-positive cells suggests that a detectable EGFP signal at 12 h p.i. depends on
4 particles for 293 cells and
7 particles for A549 cells. These few virions are not likely to encounter the few surviving microtubules in treated cells, and thus, genome delivery in most of the infected cells in treated cultures is not likely explained by surviving microtubules.
The data shown in Fig. 5 and in Tables 1 and 2 do not support an essential role for microtubules in successful genome delivery in either 293 or A549 cells. In contrast, Mabit et al. (26) concluded that microtubules play a key role in virion transport along the infectious pathway, based on their findings that reporter gene expression was compromised when microtubules were disrupted. The same authors did note the existence of an alternative, less-efficient pathway and suggested actin or short nocodazole-resistant microtubules but favored diffusion of virions over short distances (26). While diffusion might explain successful infection of some cells in the population, it seems unlikely to compensate for microtubules in all of the infected cells treated with nocodazole or colchicine. Furthermore, diffusion seems unlikely to account for the nuclear targeting of so many labeled virions in treated A549 cells and 293 cells (Fig. 4). The apparent discrepancy is not explained by the use of different reporter genes. Since Mabit et al. (26) used Ad5LacZ and assessed infectivity by expression of ß-galactosidase in a batch assay, the nocodazole experiments described here were repeated with 293 cells using Ad5.CMV-LacZ in place of Ad5EGFP. Disruption of microtubules with nocodazole did not compromise genome delivery by Ad5.CMV-LacZ as determined microscopically (Table 2) or in batch assays (not shown) using X-Gal or o-nitrophenyl-ß-D-galactopyranoside, respectively, as the substrate.
The mechanism for microtubule-independent transport is not known. "Cross talk" between microtubules and other cytoskeletal components (5, 10) might signal transport along a different pathway upon disruption of microtubules. In any case, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the normal infectious pathway on the basis of chemical disruption experiments. The experiments described here, along with those reported by Glotzer et al. (17), indicate that microtubules are not essential for nuclear targeting of virions, but they do not rule out the possibility that microtubules normally play a role in virion transport to the nucleus in untreated cells.
It is clear from multiple reports in the literature that adenoviruses are transported along microtubules towards the center of the cell (11, 24, 41). In the current study, the striking formation of juxtanuclear virion clusters in 293 cells highlights a seemingly nonproductive minus-end directed transport of virions along microtubules to accumulate near the MTOC and raises the question as to whether much of the documented transport along microtubules might also be nonproductive. It is interesting to speculate whether this pathway might represent a host defense mechanism by which virions are diverted from the infectious pathway. Segregation of virion accumulation at the MTOC from successful genome delivery, using nocodazole to disrupt microtubules, emphasizes that microtubule-mediated trafficking of the bulk virion population to the MTOC should not necessarily be interpreted as the route taken by virions en route to genome delivery. The current study indicates that successful genome delivery does not require intact microtubules for virion transport, at least in 293 and A549 cells. These findings reflect the complex nature of the adenovirus entry pathway and draw attention to the need for further investigation.
The contributions of project students (Quinn Chen, Chandra Gola, Saba Khan, Thomas Leung, John Paul Plaza, and Laura Thompson) to this work are appreciated.
Published ahead of print on 18 April 2007. ![]()
Present address: Division of Microbiology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ![]()
Present address: Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ![]()
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v integrins. J. Virol. 74:7691-7693.This article has been cited by other articles:
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