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PML-nuclear bodies accumulate DNA in response to polyomavirus BK and simian virus 40 replication

Asne Jul-Larsen1, Therese Visted, Bård Ove Karlsen

  • 1Section of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, 5009, Norway.

Experimental Cell Research
|July 10, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Promyelocytic nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) accumulate newly synthesized DNA during viral replication. PML protein is crucial for recruiting single-stranded DNA to these nuclear structures, suggesting a role in post-replication DNA processing.

Area of Science:

  • Cell Biology
  • Virology
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Promyelocytic nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) are nuclear structures involved in various cellular processes, including DNA damage response and transcriptional regulation.
  • PML-NBs have been observed to associate with sites of viral DNA replication.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of PML-NBs in the context of viral DNA replication.
  • To determine if PML-NBs accumulate newly synthesized viral DNA and to elucidate the nature of this accumulated DNA.

Main Methods:

  • BrdU pulse labeling was used to track newly synthesized DNA in cells infected with simian virus 40 (SV40) or polyomavirus BK (BKV).
  • siRNA-mediated suppression of the PML protein was employed to assess its role in DNA sequestration and viral replication.

Main Results:

  • PML-NBs were found to accumulate newly synthesized DNA during active viral replication, specifically within viral replication domains.
  • A significant portion of the sequestered DNA was single-stranded, indicating nuclease or unwinding activity.
  • Suppression of PML protein prevented single-stranded DNA recruitment to nuclear foci but did not significantly impact overall viral DNA replication efficiency.

Conclusions:

  • PML-NBs play a role in post-replication DNA processing, particularly in handling single-stranded DNA generated during viral replication.
  • The association of PML-NBs with viral DNA synthesis sites is linked to their function in DNA metabolism.

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