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Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Temporal Analysis of the Nuclear-to-cytoplasmic Translocation of a Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Protein by Immunofluorescent Confocal Microscopy
Published on: November 4, 2018
The role of nuclear pores and importins for herpes simplex virus infection
Katinka Döhner1, Manutea C Serrero2, Beate Sodeik3
1Institute of Virology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; RESIST - Cluster of Excellence, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Abstract:
Microtubule transport and nuclear import are functionally connected, and the nuclear pore complex (NPC) can interact with microtubule motors. For several alphaherpesvirus proteins, nuclear localization signals (NLSs) and their interactions with specific importin-α proteins have been characterized. Here, we review recent insights on the roles of microtubule motors, capsid-associated NLSs, and importin-α proteins for capsid transport, capsid docking to NPCs, and genome release into the nucleoplasm, as well as the role of importins for nuclear viral transcription, replication, capsid assembly, genome packaging, and nuclear capsid egress. Moreover, importin-α proteins exert antiviral effects by promoting the nuclear import of transcription factors inducing the expression of interferons (IFN), cytokines, and IFN-stimulated genes, and the IFN-inducible MxB restricts capsid docking to NPCs.
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