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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2001/8/675-a $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 154, Number 4, August 20, 2001 675-a-675

Making virus in the axon

Only cells with Us9 (top) get viral membrane proteins into axons.

Reactivated herpes viruses make their way from the nerve cell body to the axon terminal, where they are either shed or transferred across the synapse to another neuron. Tomishima and Enquist report on page 741 that, during this process, viral membrane proteins are transported into the axon independently of viral capsids, suggesting that viral assembly must occur at or near the synapse.

Viral assembly was thought to occur only in the cell body, with subsequent transport of fully assembled virions to axon terminals for release. Indeed, a pseudorabies virus mutant for Us9 appeared to be defective only in the second step, as it still makes infectious viral particles in the cell body but is defective for viral shedding from axons. But Tomishima and Enquist find that in the Us9 mutant some of the viral capsids are transported into the axon, leaving the viral membrane proteins behind in the cell body.

Us9 has motifs suggesting that it could interact with a neuron-specific adaptor, thus creating an axonal transport vesicle for viral membrane proteins. Segregating viral membrane proteins from viral capsids during axonal transport may ensure that virus components can reach the axon terminal without prematurely uniting and being shed as assembled virus. Perhaps when the components reach the synapse they encounter a synapse-specific protein that finally allows them to join together to form infectious particles.

William A. Wells

wellsw{at}rockefeller.edu

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A conserved -herpesvirus protein necessary for axonal localization of viral membrane proteins

M.J. Tomishima and L.W. Enquist
J. Cell Biol. 2001 154: 741-752. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Full Text (PDF, 168K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wells, W. A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Wells, W. A. Related Collections Related Article Social Bookmarking                            What's this?