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. 2007 Dec 21;282(51):37158-69.
doi: 10.1074/jbc.M707329200. Epub 2007 Oct 17.

The lipid droplet binding domain of hepatitis C virus core protein is a major determinant for efficient virus assembly

Anna Shavinskaya  1 , Steeve Boulant, Francois Penin, John McLauchlan, Ralf Bartenschlager
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The lipid droplet binding domain of hepatitis C virus core protein is a major determinant for efficient virus assembly

Anna Shavinskaya et al. J Biol Chem. .
Free article

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus core protein forms the viral capsid and is targeted to lipid droplets (LDs) by its domain 2 (D2). By using a comparative analysis of two hepatitis C virus genomes (JFH1 and Jc1) differing in their level of virus production in cultured human hepatoma cells, we demonstrate that the core of the genotype 2a isolate J6 that is present in Jc1 mediates efficient assembly and release of infectious virions. Mapping studies identified a single amino acid residue in D2 as a major determinant for enhanced assembly and release of infectious Jc1 particles. Confocal microscopy analyses demonstrate that core protein in JFH1-replicating cells co-localizes perfectly with LDs and induces their accumulation in the perinuclear area, whereas no such accumulation of LDs and only a partial co-localization of core and LDs were found with the Jc1 genome. By using a fluorescence recovery after photobleaching assay, we found that green fluorescent protein-tagged D2 variants are mobile on LDs and that J6- and JFH1-D2 differ in their mobility. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the binding strength of the D2 domain of core for LDs is crucial for determining the efficiency of virus assembly.

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