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Journal of Virology, September 2007, p. 9596-9600, Vol. 81, No. 17
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00758-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208,1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 606112
Received 9 April 2007/ Accepted 30 May 2007
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Glycoprotein B is highly conserved throughout the herpesvirus family. HSV-1 gB exhibits 86% sequence identity with HSV-2 gB and 29% with EBV gB, while EBV and HHV-8 gB share 40% sequence identity. Although HSV-1 gB does not share any similarity with the fusion protein (G) of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) at the protein sequence level, the structural homology between the two proteins is notable (Fig. 1A) (11, 29). The only available structure of HSV-1 gB (11) was proposed to represent a postfusion conformation based on the similarity with the postfusion form of G.
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FIG. 1. (A) Structures of the ectodomains of HSV-1 gB and G protein of VSV in postfusion conformations. Structural homology is notable between HSV-1 gB and VSV G protein, despite the lack of similarity at the protein sequence level. For clarity reasons, only monomers are shown. Residues forming a bipartite fusion peptide in VSV G protein (fusion loop 1, WY72-73; fusion loop 2, YA116-117) are labeled, and their side chains are shown as sticks. Fusion loops in the VSV G protein adopt a hairpin conformation that is typical for the internal fusion peptides of class II fusion proteins and that is compatible with membrane penetration. Residues located in the structurally homologous loops in HSV-1 gB are marked, and their side chains are shown as sticks (fusion loop 1, HR177-178; fusion loop 2, RVEA258-261). The conformations of HSV-1 gB loops do not resemble a hairpin fold and seem to be suboptimal for membrane insertion. The corresponding residues in EBV gB (fusion loop 1, WY112-113; fusion loop 2, WLIW193-196) were mutated in this study to evaluate their importance for the ability of EBV gB to mediate fusion. Both HSV-1 gB and VSV G ectodomains used for crystallization were truncated at the C terminus just before the stem regions. C termini are marked in both structures to indicate the putative location of the stem regions. Protein Data Bank files used for this figure are 2gum and 2cmx. The figure was generated using PyMOL (4). (B) Sequence alignment of gB fragments containing putative fusion loops. In contrast to the highly conserved fusion peptides identified for G protein and class I (5) and class II fusion proteins (1), the fusion loops of different gB proteins are not well conserved. Protein sequences are shown for representative herpesviruses known to infect humans: HSV-1 and HSV-2, cytomegalovirus (CMV) HHV-6, HHV-8, and EBV. Secondary structure elements, extracted from the HSV-1 gB ectodomain X-ray structure (Protein Data Bank file 2gum), are shown on top. Numbering is shown for unprocessed HSV-1 gB. Locations of the residues proposed to form fusion loops in gB are marked with triangles at the bottom of the alignment. Amino acids in the putative fusion loops in HSV-1 and EBV gB are boxed. Amino acids are shaded according to their conservation. The Risler matrix (28) was used to calculate similarity scores. Residues showing strict conservation are shown in dark gray, and residues with a similarity score of 0.7 and higher are shown in light gray. Alignment was generated using the ESPript program (8). Swiss-Prot entry numbers for the sequences shown are (from top to bottom) P10211, P06763, P06473, P36319, P03188, and P88906.
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To investigate the importance of the aromatic and hydrophobic EBV residues WY112-113 and WLIW193-196 for the fusion activity of EBV gB, a series of mutants was constructed. Mutations were introduced by using a PCR overlap extension method (12). The plasmid encoding wild-type gB in the Stratagene pSG5 vector was used as a template (9). The bulky and hydrophobic residues were replaced with three types of amino acids, differing in hydrophobicity, size, and charge. The residues introduced into each of the loops were the analogous residues from HSV-1 gB (HR and RVEA), smaller but still hydrophobic alanine residues, and negatively charged glutamic acid residues (Table 1).
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TABLE 1. Design of gB variants
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The mixture of biotinylated proteins was bound to UltraLink immobilized neutravidin protein (Pierce), eluted, separated by SDS-PAGE, and then blotted with antibodies recognizing gB or actin (Fig. 2A). In parallel experiments, gB was immunoprecipitated with protein G-Sepharose beads (GE Healthcare) loaded with the polyclonal anti-gB antibody, and subjected to SDS-PAGE, and then the biotinylated gB was detected with avidin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (Fig. 2B). Polyclonal anti-gB antibody was made by genetic immunization of rabbits with EBV gB expression vectors (Aldevron, North Dakota). Anti-actin antibody (Sigma) bound to protein G beads was used to pull down actin from these samples as well.
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FIG. 2. Surface expression of EBV gB variants. Surface proteins were biotinylated, and neutravidin beads were used to precipitate all biotinylated proteins (A); alternatively, protein G beads loaded with anti-gB antibodies (upper panel) or anti-actin antibodies (middle and lower panels) were used to precipitate gB or actin, respectively (B). In the upper part of panel A, biotinylated gB was detected by Western blotting using anti-gB antibody, while biotinylated actin could not be detected when anti-actin antibody was used instead (lower panel). In panel B avidin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase was used for detection of biotinylated proteins in the upper and middle blots. Biotinylated gB was detected (upper panel), and there was no biotinylated actin in the samples (middle panel). Actin was detected when anti-actin antibody was used for detection, confirming the presence of actin. Samples are labeled as shown in Table 1. WT, wild type.
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A virus-free cell-based fusion assay (18, 22) was employed to evaluate the ability of gB variants to mediate fusion with two target cell types that EBV infects in vivo: B cells (Daudi B lymphocytes; American Type Culture Collection) and epithelial cells (human embryonic kidney 293 cells; American Type Culture Collection). The cells were maintained in culture as described previously (18, 24, 31). The effector CHO-K1 cells were transfected (18, 22) with the combination of plasmids encoding the glycoproteins required for fusion (gB, gH, and gL for epithelial cell fusion and gB, gH, gL, and gp42 for B-cell fusion) and the luciferase gene under the control of T7 polymerase. The target cells were stably transfected with T7 polymerase, and the luciferase gene was activated only in the event of fusion of the effector and the target cells. The amount of expressed luciferase was measured using a chemiluminescent substrate, and it allowed for quantification of the fusion activity of the variants. Luciferase activity was measured for triplicate aliquots of cell lysates transferred to a 96-well plate. For each experiment, each of the triplicate measurements was expressed as a percentage of the average value calculated for the positive control sample. The results shown in Fig. 3 represent an average of data collected in three independent experiments (total of nine data points). Error bars correspond to standard deviations of the normalized values.
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FIG. 3. Effect of the amino acid substitutions in EBV gB putative fusion loops on epithelial cell fusion (A) and B-cell fusion (B). CHO-K1 cells were transiently transfected with plasmids encoding gB (wild-type or mutant protein), gH/gL, and T7-driven luciferase for epithelial cells fusion or gB (wild-type or mutant protein), gH/gL, gp42, and T7-driven luciferase for B-cell fusion. The CHO-K1 cells were overlaid with the same number of 293T epithelial cells or Daudi B cells expressing T7 polymerase. Fusion was allowed to proceed for 24 h, and luciferase activity was measured to quantify the level of fusion. The first sample lacked gB (gB–) and served as a background control. The second sample (+gB) refers to the positive control (transfected with wild-type gB, gH/gL, and T7-driven luciferase for epithelial cell fusion and gp42 for B-cell fusion). gB mutant proteins are marked according to the type of putative fusion loop (FL) substitution shown in Table 1. Luciferase activity measured for the positive control is set to 100%, and the rest of the measurements are expressed as a percentage of the positive control.
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Although gB is highly conserved in herpesviruses, functional complementation between gB proteins from different herpesviruses has not been found (21, 26). This lack of functional complementation is further highlighted by the inability of the EBV gB to retain its function when the homologous HSV-1 gB residues are introduced and points to other virus-specific differences that are important for membrane fusion to occur. Even introduction of hydrophobic, albeit smaller, alanines decreases fusion close to the background level. The aromatic and hydrophobic amino acids (W, Y, I, and L) forming putative fusion loops in EBV gB strongly resemble the residues typically present in the fusion peptides of class I and class II fusion proteins. Moreover, tryptophan and tyrosine side chains are often found at the interface between charged phospholipids and hydrophobic fatty acid chains of lipid membranes (36). The abundance of these amino acids in the EBV gB putative fusion loops suggests that the residues provided by gB alone might cause sufficient lipid mixing that would result in membrane fusion. This would be consistent with the enhanced inherent fusogenicity of EBV gB and its ability to cause fusion in a gH/gL-independent manner (23).
The membrane-proximal regions of the VSV G protein, called stems, have been shown to be important for the fusion mechanism and viral infectivity (14, 15). When expressed alone, these fragments, rich in hydrophobic residues, potentiate the activity of unrelated fusion proteins and can cause hemifusion in the absence of the G ectodomain. The importance of the analogous regions in herpesvirus gBs for fusion is not clear, although swapping these domains between gB proteins of different herpesviruses results in chimeras that do not functionally complement each other (21), reminiscent of our results with the HSV-1 fusion loops present in the EBV gB protein. By analogy with the G protein of VSV, it seems possible that some of the energy required for lipid mixing that leads to fusion could be provided by the gB stem regions. These stem regions might be of particular importance for those gB proteins that lack hydrophobic residues in the fusion loops. Indeed, gB proteins of HSV-1 and HSV-2 have more hydrophobic stem regions than the EBV and HHV-8 gB proteins, whose fusion loops are rich in hydrophobic amino acids compatible with membrane insertion. The comparison is shown in Fig. 4 and is based on the calculation of the average hydrophobicity of the mentioned regions, performed using the Kyte and Doolittle hydrophobicity scale (19, 34).
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FIG. 4. Negative correlation of hydrophobicities of gB putative fusion loops and stem regions. Total hydrophobicities were calculated using the Kyle and Doolittle scale. Protein sequences and abbreviations used here are the same as shown in Fig. 1B. Residues found in the putative fusion loops and used in calculations are labeled with filled triangles at the bottom in Fig. 1B. The region spanning 50 residues located immediately upstream of the transmembrane anchor (residues 774 to 795) in HSV-1 gB (27) contains two hydrophobic helical regions which, we hypothesized, might serve as stem regions in HSV-1 gB. The borders of homologous segments in gB proteins of other herpesviruses were determined based on the gB sequence alignment (data not shown). The hydrophobicity values calculated for putative fusion loops are plotted as a function of hydrophobicity values obtained for the stem regions. Due to the higher hydrophobicity of stem regions and lower hydrophobicity of the fusion loops, gB of -herpesviruses HSV-1 and HSV-2 cluster at the opposite side of the plot from the gB of -herpesviruses EBV and HHV-8, which have more hydrophobic fusion loops and fewer hydrophobic stem regions.
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This research was supported by Public Health Service grants CA93444 (R.L. and T.S.J.) and CA117794 (R.L. and T.S.J.) from the National Cancer Institute.
Published ahead of print on 6 June 2007. ![]()
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