Fig 4. Mutagenesis studies of the oligomerization domain.

(A) Amino acid sequence similarity between baculovirus LEF-11 mutants. The putative BmNPV LEF-11 oligomerization domains were aligned with other baculovirus species using ClustalW. The core oligomerization domains are shown in boxes. Identical and similar residues are highlighted in black and gray, respectively, using the Boxshade Server (http://www.ch.embnet.org/software/BOX_form.html). The mutated residues in the oligomerization domain are shown in color and large type. (B) BmN-SWU1 cells were transfected with LEF-11 site-directed mutant plasmids and analyzed via non-reducing SDS-PAGE analysis. At 72 h.p.t., cells were collected and lysed. The samples were mixed with non-reducing protein loading buffer (without β-mercaptoethanol) without boiling and were mixed with α-DsRed antibody to detect oligomerization. Asterisks represent non-specific bands.