Borna Disease Virus Assembles Porous Cage-like Viral Factories in the Nucleus

Animal-derived RNA viruses frequently generate viral factories in infected cells. However, the details of how RNA viruses build such intracellular structures are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the structure and formation of the viral factories, called viral speckle of transcripts (vSPOTs), that are produced in the nuclei of host cells by Borna disease virus (BDV). Super-resolution microscopic analysis showed that BDV assembled vSPOTs as intranuclear cage-like structures with 59-180-nm pores. The viral nucleoprotein formed the exoskeletons of vSPOTs, whereas the other viral proteins appeared to be mainly localized within these structures. In addition, stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy revealed that filamentous structures resembling viral ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs) appeared to protrude from the outer surfaces of the vSPOTs. We also found that vSPOTs disintegrated into RNPs concurrently with the breakdown of the nuclear envelope during mitosis. These observations demonstrated that BDV generates viral replication factories whose shape and formation are regulated, suggesting the mechanism of the integrity of RNA virus persistent infection in the nucleus.