Cleavage of Epstein - Barr virus glycoprotein B is required for full function in cell-cell fusion with both epithelial and B cells

Jessica Sorem, Richard Longnecker*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Glycoprotein B (gB) homologues within the herpesvirus family display high sequence conservation, and a number of gB homologues contain a cleavage motif R-X-K/R-R recognized by the cellular protease furin. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) gB contains this motif and cleaved gB is found in EBV virions. To determine the functional significance of this cleavage motif in EBV gB, a deletion mutant (gB Δfurin) was created lacking the motif. This cleavage mutant was expressed well in cell culture but was not cleaved. Experiments examining gB Δfurin in a cell-fusion assay revealed that fusion was reduced by 52% in epithelial and 28% in B cells when compared with wild-type EBV gB. This decrease in cell-cell fusion is similar to that observed with multiple alphaherpesvirus gB cleavage mutants and supports a conserved function for cleaved gB.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)591-595
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of General Virology
Volume90
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Virology

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