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Updated: May 3, 2026

Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes: A Functional Genomics Tool for the Study of Positive-strand RNA Viruses
Published on: December 29, 2015
Induction of endoplasmic reticulum-derived replication-competent membrane structures by West Nile virus
Pakieli H Kaufusi1, James F Kelley1, Richard Yanagihara2
1Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America ; Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America.
Abstract:
Replication of flaviviruses (family Flaviviridae) occurs in specialized virus-induced membrane structures (IMS). The cellular composition of these IMS varies for different flaviviruses implying different organelle origins for IMS biogenesis. The role of flavivirus non-structural (NS) proteins for the alteration of IMS remains controversial. In this report, we demonstrate that West Nile virus strain New York 99 (WNVNY99) remodels the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane to generate specialized IMS. Within these structures, we observed an element of the cis-Golgi, viral double-stranded RNA, and viral-envelope, NS1, NS4A and NS4B proteins using confocal immunofluorescence microscopy. Biochemical analysis and microscopy revealed that NS4B lacking the 2K-signal peptide associates with the ER membrane where it initiates IMS formation in WNV-infected cells. Co-transfection studies indicated that NS4A and NS4B always remain co-localized in the IMS and are associated with the same membrane fractions, suggesting that these proteins function cooperatively in virus replication and may be an ideal target for antiviral drug discovery.
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