Abstract
A virus-free cell fusion assay relying on the transient transfection of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) glycoproteins into cells provides an efficient and quantitative assay for characterizing the viral requirements necessary for fusion of the viral envelope with the B cell membrane. Extensive cellular fusion occurred when Daudi cells were layered onto Chinese hamster ovary K1 cells transiently expressing EBV glycoproteins gp42, gH, gL, and gB. This is the first direct evidence that gB is involved in the process of EBV entry. Moreover, mutational analysis of gB indicates that the cytoplasmic tail contains two distinct domains that function differentially in the process of fusion. The region from amino acids 802 to 816 is necessary for productive membrane fusion, while amino acids 817 to 841 comprise a domain that negatively regulates membrane fusion.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 106-114 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Virology |
| Volume | 290 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 10 2001 |
Funding
We thank the people in the laboratories of Dr. R. Longnecker, Dr. P. Spear, and Dr. P. Pertel for providing valuable advice and help. Drs L. Hutt-Fletcher and Y. Matsuura provided the gifts of valuable reagents. K.M.H. is supported by the training program in the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease (T32 GM08061) from the National Institutes of Health. S.K.L. was supported by Korea Research Foundation (Grant KRF-2000-041-D00283). R.L. is a Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America and is supported by Public Health Service Grants CA62234 and CA73507 from the National Cancer Institute and Grant DE13127 from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Virology