Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1989 Jul;63(7):2995–3000. doi: 10.1128/jvi.63.7.2995-3000.1989

The duck hepatitis B virus core protein contains a highly phosphorylated C terminus that is essential for replication but not for RNA packaging.

H J Schlicht 1, R Bartenschlager 1, H Schaller 1
PMCID: PMC250854  PMID: 2724419

Abstract

In this report, we present biochemical and mutational analyses of the duck hepatitis B virus core protein (DHBcAg). The data show that duck hepatitis B virus core particles consist of at least four different proteins with sizes between 32 and 34 kilodaltons, all of which react with DHBcAg-specific antiserum. Most of the heterogeneity was found to be due to extensive phosphorylation of the DHBcAg C terminus. Bacterially synthesized DHBcAg was not phosphorylated, and mutations within the viral P gene did not influence phosphorylation, suggesting that the kinase activity is not encoded by the viral C or P gene. Removal of the last 12 C-terminal DHBcAg amino acids, which are at least in part located on the core particle surface, had only a minor effect on DHBcAg phosphorylation and did not interfere with packaging of the capsids into viral envelopes or with genome replication. However, an attempt to infect ducklings with this mutant failed. Removal of the last 36 C-terminal DHBcAg amino acids abolished core protein heterogeneity but did not prevent particle formation. Interestingly, these particles were defective in genome replication, although they could still package viral pregenomic RNA.

Full text

PDF
2996

Images in this article

2996Image
on p.2996
2997Image
on p.2997
2997Image
on p.2997
2998Image
on p.2998
2999Image
on p.2999
2999Image
on p.2999

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Albin C., Robinson W. S. Protein kinase activity in hepatitis B virus. J Virol. 1980 Apr;34(1):297–302. doi: 10.1128/jvi.34.1.297-302.1980. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bruss V., Gerlich W. H. Formation of transmembraneous hepatitis B e-antigen by cotranslational in vitro processing of the viral precore protein. Virology. 1988 Apr;163(2):268–275. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(88)90266-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Feitelson M. A., Marion P. L., Robinson W. S. Core particles of hepatitis B virus and ground squirrel hepatitis virus. II. Characterization of the protein kinase reaction associated with ground squirrel hepatitis virus and hepatitis B virus. J Virol. 1982 Aug;43(2):741–748. doi: 10.1128/jvi.43.2.741-748.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Galle P. R., Schlicht H. J., Fischer M., Schaller H. Production of infectious duck hepatitis B virus in a human hepatoma cell line. J Virol. 1988 May;62(5):1736–1740. doi: 10.1128/jvi.62.5.1736-1740.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Ganem D., Varmus H. E. The molecular biology of the hepatitis B viruses. Annu Rev Biochem. 1987;56:651–693. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.56.070187.003251. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Garcia P. D., Ou J. H., Rutter W. J., Walter P. Targeting of the hepatitis B virus precore protein to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane: after signal peptide cleavage translocation can be aborted and the product released into the cytoplasm. J Cell Biol. 1988 Apr;106(4):1093–1104. doi: 10.1083/jcb.106.4.1093. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gerlich W. H., Goldmann U., Müller R., Stibbe W., Wolff W. Specificity and localization of the hepatitis B virus-associated protein kinase. J Virol. 1982 Jun;42(3):761–766. doi: 10.1128/jvi.42.3.761-766.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hanks S. K., Quinn A. M., Hunter T. The protein kinase family: conserved features and deduced phylogeny of the catalytic domains. Science. 1988 Jul 1;241(4861):42–52. doi: 10.1126/science.3291115. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kaplan P. M., Greenman R. L., Gerin J. L., Purcell R. H., Robinson W. S. DNA polymerase associated with human hepatitis B antigen. J Virol. 1973 Nov;12(5):995–1005. doi: 10.1128/jvi.12.5.995-1005.1973. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Krieg P. A., Melton D. A. In vitro RNA synthesis with SP6 RNA polymerase. Methods Enzymol. 1987;155:397–415. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(87)55027-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Melton D. A., Krieg P. A., Rebagliati M. R., Maniatis T., Zinn K., Green M. R. Efficient in vitro synthesis of biologically active RNA and RNA hybridization probes from plasmids containing a bacteriophage SP6 promoter. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Sep 25;12(18):7035–7056. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.18.7035. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ou J. H., Laub O., Rutter W. J. Hepatitis B virus gene function: the precore region targets the core antigen to cellular membranes and causes the secretion of the e antigen. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Mar;83(6):1578–1582. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.6.1578. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Pasek M., Goto T., Gilbert W., Zink B., Schaller H., MacKay P., Leadbetter G., Murray K. Hepatitis B virus genes and their expression in E. coli. Nature. 1979 Dec 6;282(5739):575–579. doi: 10.1038/282575a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Pugh J., Zweidler A., Summers J. Characterization of the major duck hepatitis B virus core particle protein. J Virol. 1989 Mar;63(3):1371–1376. doi: 10.1128/jvi.63.3.1371-1376.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Roossinck M. J., Siddiqui A. In vivo phosphorylation and protein analysis of hepatitis B virus core antigen. J Virol. 1987 Apr;61(4):955–961. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.4.955-961.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Schlicht H. J., Kuhn C., Guhr B., Mattaliano R. J., Schaller H. Biochemical and immunological characterization of the duck hepatitis B virus envelope proteins. J Virol. 1987 Jul;61(7):2280–2285. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.7.2280-2285.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Schlicht H. J., Radziwill G., Schaller H. Synthesis and encapsidation of duck hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase do not require formation of core-polymerase fusion proteins. Cell. 1989 Jan 13;56(1):85–92. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90986-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Schlicht H. J., Salfeld J., Schaller H. The duck hepatitis B virus pre-C region encodes a signal sequence which is essential for synthesis and secretion of processed core proteins but not for virus formation. J Virol. 1987 Dec;61(12):3701–3709. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.12.3701-3709.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Sprengel R., Kuhn C., Will H., Schaller H. Comparative sequence analysis of duck and human hepatitis B virus genomes. J Med Virol. 1985 Apr;15(4):323–333. doi: 10.1002/jmv.1890150402. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Standring D. N., Ou J. H., Masiarz F. R., Rutter W. J. A signal peptide encoded within the precore region of hepatitis B virus directs the secretion of a heterogeneous population of e antigens in Xenopus oocytes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Nov;85(22):8405–8409. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.22.8405. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Zoller M. J., Smith M. Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis: a simple method using two oligonucleotide primers and a single-stranded DNA template. DNA. 1984 Dec;3(6):479–488. doi: 10.1089/dna.1.1984.3.479. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Virology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES