Microtubule transport of herpesvirus capsids from the cell periphery to the nucleus is imperative for viral replication and, in the case of many alphaherpesviruses, transmission into the nervous system. Using the neuroinvasive herpesvirus, pseudorabies virus (PRV), we show that the viral protein 1/2 (VP1/2) tegument protein associates with the dynein/dynactin microtubule motor complex and promo...

Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common cause of curable bacterial sexually transmitted infections worldwide. Although the pathogen is well established, the pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear. Given the current challenges of antibiotic resistance and blocked processes of vaccine development, the use of a specific chlamydiaphage may be a new treatment solution. φCPG1 is a lytic phage specific...

Polyomavirus late nuclear primary transcripts contain tandem repeats of the late strand of the viral genome, as a result of inefficient transcription termination and polyadenylation. Pre-mRNA processing involves the splicing of short noncoding late leader exons to each other (removing genome-length introns) and the splicing of the last leader to a coding body exon (such as for the major virion ...

JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) causes progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system in immunocompromised patients. Study PML-type JCPyV vitro has been limited due to difficulty efficient propagation virus cultured cells. In this study, we carried out long term cultivation COS-7 cells (designated as COS-IMRb cells) transfected with PML type M1-I...

Enterovirus 70 (EV70) is the causative agent of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC), for which no effective vaccine is available. This study revealed a high reactivity of the N-terminal region of EV70 VP1 (VP1-1) with an anti-EV70 mouse serum. The analysis of overlapping synthetic peptides of VP1-1 identified a B-cell epitope in this region. The E-peptide (14-ANTVESEIKAELGVI-28) showing the ...

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is known to employ the conserved Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) tripeptide located on the variable betaG-betaH loop of the VP1 capsid protein for binding to cells. Coxsackievirus A9 (CAV9) also carries an RGD sequence, but on a short C-terminal extension of its VP1 and in a different amino acid context. This apparent relationship raised the question of whether insertion o...

Assembly of poliovirus virions requires proteolytic cleavage of the P1 capsid precursor polyprotein between two separate glutamine-glycine (QG) amino acid pairs by the viral protease 3CD. In this study, we have investigated the effects on P1 polyprotein processing and subsequent assembly of processed capsid proteins caused by substitution of the glycine residue at the individual QG cleavage sit...

The duck hepatitis A virus (DHAV), a member of the family Picornaviridae, is the major cause of outbreaks with high mortality rates in young ducklings. It has three distinctive serotypes and among them, serotypes 1 (DHAV-1) and 3 (DHAV-3) were recognized in China. To investigate evolutionary and antigenic properties of the major capsid protein VP1 of these two serotypes, a primary target of neu...

The Viviparous-1 (Vp1) gene of maize is specifically required for expression of the maturation program in seed development. We show that Vp1 encodes a 73,335 dalton protein with no detectable homology to known proteins. An acidic transcriptional activation sequence was identified by fusion to the GAL4 DNA-binding domain. Expression of VP1 in maize protoplasts resulted in strong activation (grea...

The Viviparous-1 (Vp1) gene is required for expression of the C1 regulatory gene of the anthocyanin pathway in the developing maize seed. We show that VP1 overexpression and the hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), activate a reporter gene driven by the C1 promoter in maize protoplasts. Cis-acting sequences essential for these responses were localized. Mutation of a conserved sequence in the C1 promot...