Herpesvirus envelopment is assumed to follow an uneconomical pathway including primary envelopment at the inner nuclear membrane, de-envelopment at the outer nuclear membrane, and reenvelopment at the trans-Golgi network. In contrast to the hypothesis of de-envelopment by fusion of the primary envelope with the outer nuclear membrane, virions were demonstrated to be transported from the perinuclear space to rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) cisternae. Here we show by high-resolution microscopy that herpes simplex virus 1 envelopment follows two diverse pathways. First, nuclear envelopment includes budding of capsids at the inner nuclear membrane into the perinuclear space whereby tegument and a thick electron dense envelope are acquired. The substance responsible for the dense envelope is speculated to enable intraluminal transportation of virions via RER into Golgi cisternae. Within Golgi cisternae, virions are packaged into transport vacuoles containing one or several virions. Second, for cytoplasmic envelopment, capsids gain direct access from the nucleus to the cytoplasm via impaired nuclear pores. Cytoplasmic capsids could bud at the outer nuclear membrane, at membranes of RER, Golgi cisternae, and large vacuoles, and at banana-shaped membranous entities that were found to continue into Golgi membranes. Envelopes originating by budding at the outer nuclear membrane and RER membrane also acquire a dense substance. Budding at Golgi stacks, designated wrapping, results in single virions within small vacuoles that contain electron-dense substances between envelope and vacuolar membranes.Much controversy has arisen about the pathway of herpesvirus capsids from their nuclear origin to the site of their release into the extracellular space (e.g., see references 4, 13, 19, 50, 52, 53, 55, and 56). The current widely accepted view suggests the formation of primary virions comprising capsid, primary tegument, and a primary envelope that originates by budding at the inner nuclear membrane into the perinuclear space (37). For de-envelopment, the primary envelope is assumed to be inserted into the outer nuclear membrane by fusion, releasing capsid and the primary tegument into the cytoplasm (14). In contrast to de-envelopment, many investigations clearly demonstrate that "primary" virions are transported from the perinuclear space into rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) cisternae (12,15,45,51,52,58,62) and that "primary" wild-type virions can accumulate within the perinuclear space-RER compartment (55). Intraluminal accumulations of virions have also been explained as a failure in deenvelopment, e.g., due to the lack of US3 protein in pseudorabies virus (25). The de-envelopment theory also does not consider that membrane fusion is a fast but well-studied process starting by close apposition of the membranes to allow fusion followed by pore formation (24,27,32,36). Recognizing close apposition and pore formation is imperative to distinguishing fusion from budding and fission. To our knowledge, pore formation between "prim...

We have constructed a recombinant herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) that simultaneously encodes selected structural proteins from all three virion compartments-capsid, tegument, and envelope-fused with autofluorescent proteins. This triple-fluorescent recombinant, rHSV-RYC, was replication competent, albeit with delayed kinetics, incorporated the fusion proteins into all three virion compartments, and was comparable to wild-type HSV-1 at the ultrastructural level. The VP26 capsid fusion protein (monomeric red fluorescent protein [mRFP]-VP26) was first observed throughout the nucleus and later accumulated in viral replication compartments. In the course of infection, mRFP-VP26 formed small foci in the periphery of the replication compartments that expanded and coalesced over time into much larger foci. The envelope glycoprotein H (gH) fusion protein (enhanced yellow fluorescent protein [EYFP]-gH) was first observed accumulating in a vesicular pattern in the cytoplasm and was then incorporated primarily into the nuclear membrane. The VP16 tegument fusion protein (VP16-enhanced cyan fluorescent protein [ECFP]) was first observed in a diffuse nuclear pattern and then accumulated in viral replication compartments. In addition, it also formed small foci in the periphery of the replication compartments which, however, did not colocalize with the small mRFP-VP26 foci. Later, VP16-ECFP was redistributed out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm, where it accumulated in vesicular foci and in perinuclear clusters reminiscent of the Golgi apparatus. Late in infection, mRFP-VP26, EYFP-gH, and VP16-ECFP were found colocalizing in dots at the plasma membrane, possibly representing mature progeny virus. In summary, this study provides new insights into the dynamics of compartmentalization and interaction among capsid, tegument, and envelope proteins. Similar strategies can also be applied to assess other dynamic events in the virus life cycle, such as entry and trafficking.The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) virion consists of three different compartments, capsid, tegument, and envelope. The icosahedral capsid has a diameter of 125 nm and contains the virus genome, a double-stranded DNA of 152 kbp. The structural basis of the capsid are the 162 capsomers, which include 150 hexons and 12 pentons (47). The capsomers are connected in groups of three by a complex formed with two copies of VP23 and one copy of VP19c (47,54,68). The hexons are composed of six molecules of the major capsid protein VP5. Eleven of the 12 pentons are composed of five molecules of VP5, while 1 of the 12, the so-called portal, is a cylindrical structure of 12 molecules of UL6 (46). Also involved in capsid assembly, but not physical components of the capsids, are the scaffold polypeptides VP22a, VP21, and the serine protease, VP24, which is required for capsid maturation (9,26,38,51). Six copies of VP26, a 12-kDa polypeptide encoded by the UL35 gene, occupy the tips of each hexon and thus decorate the surface of the capsid (42, 69). Although not essential...

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has previously been shown to inhibit the replication of its helper virus herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), and the inhibitory activity has been attributed to the expression of the AAV Rep proteins. In the present study, we assessed the Rep activities required for inhibition of HSV-1 replication using a panel of wild-type and mutant Rep proteins lacking defined domains and activities. We found that the inhibition of HSV-1 replication required Rep DNA-binding and ATPase/helicase activities but not endonuclease activity. The Rep activities required for inhibition of HSV-1 replication precisely coincided with the activities that were responsible for induction of cellular DNA damage and apoptosis, suggesting that these three processes are closely linked. Notably, the presence of Rep induced the hyperphosphorylation of a DNA damage marker, replication protein A (RPA), which has been reported not to be normally hyperphosphorylated during HSV-1 infection and to be sequestered away from HSV-1 replication compartments during infection. Finally, we demonstrate that the execution of apoptosis is not required for inhibition of HSV-1 replication and that the hyperphosphorylation of RPA per se is not inhibitory for HSV-1 replication, suggesting that these two processes are not directly responsible for the inhibition of HSV-1 replication by Rep.Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a widespread, nonpathogenic human parvovirus with a unique biphasic life cycle. In the absence of a helper virus, AAV establishes a latent infection in the host cell mediated either by site-specific integration of the viral genome into human chromosome 19 or by episomal persistence of circularized virus genomes (reviewed in reference 53). In the presence of helper viruses such as a herpesvirus, adenovirus (Ad), or papillomavirus, AAV is rescued from latency and undergoes lytic replication. The AAV genome is a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) of 4,680 nucleotides, which is packaged into an icosahedral capsid with a diameter of 20 nm. The AAV genome harbors two open reading frames (ORFs), rep and cap, which are flanked by two inverted terminal repeats (ITRs) containing viral origins of DNA replication. The cap ORF is transcribed from the p40 promoter and encodes the capsid proteins VP1, VP2, and VP3, which differ in their N termini due to alternative start codons. The rep ORF encodes the Rep proteins, which are expressed in four different forms due to transcription from two different promoters, p5 and p19, and alternative splicing at an intron at the C-terminal end. The different Rep proteins are termed Rep40, Rep52, Rep68, and Rep78 according to their apparent molecular weight. The Rep proteins are involved in diverse processes in the viral life cycle, such as DNA replication, regulation of gene expression, genome packaging, and site-specific integration (reviewed in reference 56). The biochemical activities of Rep required for AAV DNA metabolism include site-specific DNA-binding and endonuclease activities, as well as non-site-sp...

In primary glioblastomas and other tumor types, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is frequently observed with alterations, such as amplification, structural rearrangements, or overexpression of the gene, suggesting an important role in glial tumorigenesis and progression. In this study, we investigated whether posttranscriptional gene silencing by vector-mediated RNAi to inhibit EGFR expression can reduce the growth of cultured human gli36 glioma cells. To "knock down" EGFR expression, we have created HSV-1-based amplicons that contain the RNA polymerase III-dependent H1 promoter to express double-stranded hairpin RNA directed against EGFR at two different locations (pHSVsiEGFR I and pHSVsiEGFR II). We demonstrate that both pHSVsiEGFR I and pHSVsiEGFR II mediated knock-down of transiently transfected full-length EGFR or endogenous EGFR in a dose-dependent manner. The knock-down of EGFR resulted in the growth inhibition of human glioblastoma (gli36-luc) cells both in culture and in athymic mice in vivo. Cell cycle analysis and annexin V staining revealed that siRNA-mediated suppression of EGFR induced apoptosis. Overall HSV-1 amplicons can mediate efficient and specific posttranscriptional gene silencing.