Foot-and-mouth disease virus proteinase 3C inhibits translation in recombinant Escherichia coli

The nuclear protein Sam68 is cleaved by the FMDV 3C protease redistributing Sam68 to the cytoplasm during FMDV infection of host cells

Picornavirus infection can lead to disruption of nuclear pore traffic, shut-off of cell translation machinery, and cleavage of proteins involved in cellular signal transduction and the innate response to infection. Here, we demonstrated that the FMDV 3C(pro) induced the cleavage of nuclear RNA-binding protein Sam68 C-terminus containing the nuclear localization sequence (NLS). Consequently, it stimulated the redistribution of Sam68 to the cytoplasm. The siRNA knockdown of Sam68 resulted in a 1000-fold reduction in viral titers, which prompted us to study the effect of Sam68 on FMDV post-entry events. Interestingly, Sam68 interacts with the internal ribosomal entry site within the 5' non-translated region of the FMDV genome, and Sam68 knockdown decreased FMDV IRES-driven activity in vitro suggesting that it could modulate translation of the viral genome. The results uncover a novel role for Sam68 in the context of picornaviruses and the proteolysis of a new cellular target of the FMDV 3C(pro).

Intracellular membrane proliferation in E. coli induced by foot-and-mouth disease virus 3A gene products

During picornavirus infection replication of genomic RNA occurs in membrane-associated ribonucleoprotein complexes. These replication complexes contain different nonstructural viral proteins with mostly unknown function. To examine the function of nonstructural picornaviral proteins in more detail, cDNA of foot-and-mouth-disease virus (FMDV) strain O1 Lausanne was cloned into lambda ZAP II, and different parts of the P3-coding sequence were expressed in E. coli by the T7 polymerase system. Expression products constituted (a) fusion proteins composed of N-terminal leader peptide of bacteriophage T7 phi 10 protein fused to FMDV P3-sequences of different lengths, (b) translation products of authentic P3-region genes, and (c) carboxy-terminally truncated 3A proteins. Expression products were characterized by NaDodSO4-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, immunoblotting, as well as electron and immunoelectron microscopy. We show here that in the T7 polymerase system a high level of expression of 3A-containing peptides is achieved in E. coli. Remarkably, the expression of 3A-derived proteins induced a dramatic intracellular membrane proliferation in E. coli cells, similar to the vesicle induction observed in FMDV-infected cells. By immunoelectron microscopy, 3A-reactive material was found associated with these membranes. We hypothesize that the FMDV 3A protein is instrumental in eliciting intracellular membrane proliferation in infected cells as a prerequisite for viral RNA replication.