Studies on the transporting and targeting of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus ODV - E18.
The envelope proteins of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV) occlusion-derived virus are synthesized in cytosolic plasma of their host cells, transported and assembled in the nuclei of the cells. The mechanism of protein transporting and targeting is of quite interest to us. In this study, a recombinant virus expressing the fusion protein of E18 and Flag marker peptide under AcMNPV polyhedrin promoter was constructed. Immunofluorescence was used to localize E18 in the recombinant virus infected cells and yeast two hybrid system was employed to find out the possible transporting protein which binds with E18. Our preliminary results showed that E18 existed first in the nuclei in the form of microvesicle-the intranuclear membrane structure and it might be transported into the nuclei through the interaction with another AcMNPV envelope protein-ODV-E66, the latter has been reported containing a 23-amino-acid sequence which is sufficient to direct reporter proteins to nucleus.