Fig. 8.

Effects of mutations in the C-terminal NS4B region and pseudoreversions on HCV-induced membrane rearrangements. Lunet-T7 cells were transfected with the NS3-5B expression vector containing either wt NS4B or given mutation(s). After 24 h, the cells were fixed, processed, and analyzed by TEM as described in Materials and Methods. (A) DMV morphology induced by replication-competent NS3 to NS5B containing wt NS4B (i) or the replication-competent NS4B mutants E199A (ii) or H217V (iii). (B to E) DMV morphology induced by replication-incompetent NS4B mutants specified in the left of each panel (i) and the corresponding pseudorevertants (subpanels ii and iii in each panel). Regular (*) and aberrant (▾) DMVs are indicated. The scale bar in each panel represents 100 nm.