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 language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 591-595 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of General Virology |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2009 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Virology