Journal of General Virology, Vol 80, 97-100, Copyright © 1999 by Society for General Microbiology

ARTICLES

Characterization of the major nuclear localization signal of the Borna disease virus phosphoprotein

M Schwemmle, C Jehle, T Shoemaker and WI Lipkin
Abteilung Virologie, Institut fur Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Universitat Freiburg, Germany. schwemm@ukl.uni-freiburg.de

Borna disease virus (BDV) replicates and transcribes its negative-sense RNA genome in the nucleus. The BDV phosphoprotein (P) is localized in the nucleus of infected cells and cells transfected with P expression constructs. To identify the nuclear localization signal (NLS) of P, COS- 7 cells were transfected with wild-type or mutant forms of P fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP). Whereas GFP alone was exclusively cytoplasmic, P or P-GFP were nuclear. Analysis of carboxy- and amino- terminal truncation mutants of P indicated that amino acids (aa) 20-37 are sufficient to promote efficient nuclear accumulation of the fusion protein. Residual nuclear import of GFP was observed with portions of P including aa 33-134 or aa 134-201, suggesting the presence of additional NLS motifs. The major NLS of P appears to be bipartite. It consists of two basic aa domains, R22RER25 and R30PRKIPR36, separated by four non-basic aa, S26GSP29.

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