Role of nuclear pore complex in simian virus 40 nuclear targeting

Cytoplasmically injected simian virus 40 (SV40) virions enter the nucleus through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and can express large T antigen shortly thereafter (J. Clever, M. Yamada, and H. Kasamatsu, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:7333-7337, 1991). The nuclear import of the protein components of introduced SV40 was reversibly arrested by chilling and energy depletion, corroborating our previous observation that the nuclear entry of injected SV40 is blocked in the presence of wheat germ agglutinin and an antinucleoporin monoclonal antibody (mAb414), general inhibitors of NPC-mediated import. The nuclear accumulation of virion protein components and large T antigen in nonpermissive NIH 3T3 cells was similar to that in the permissive host, indicating that the ability to use NPCs as a route of nuclear entry appears to be a general property of the injected virus. Injected virions were capable of completing their lytic cycle and forming plaques in permissive cells. During the early phase of SV40 infection, the cytoplasmic injection of mAb414 effectively blocked nuclear T-antigen accumulation for up to 8 h of infection but had very little effect after 12 h of infection. The time-dependent interference with nuclear T-antigen accumulation by the antinucleoporin antibody is consistent with the hypothesis that the infecting virions enter the nucleus through NPCs. The interference study also suggests that the early phase of infection consists of at least two steps: a step for virion cell entry and intracytoplasmic trafficking and a step for virion nuclear entry followed by large-T-antigen gene expression and subsequent nuclear localization of the gene product. Virions were visualized as electron-dense particles in ultrathin sections of samples in which transport was permitted or arrested. In the former cells, electron-dense particles were predominantly observed in the nucleus. The virions were distributed randomly and nonuniformly in the nucleoplasm but were not observed in heterochromatin or in nucleoli. In the latter cells, the electron-dense particles were seen intersecting the nuclear envelope, near the inner nuclear membrane, and in NPCs. In tangential cross sections of NPCs, which appeared as donut-shaped structures, a spherical electron-dense particle was observed in the center of the structure. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that NPCs were selectively decorated with 5-nm colloidal gold particles-anti-Vp1 immunoglobulin G at the cytoplasmic entrance to and in NPCs, confirming that the morphologically observed electron-dense particles in NPCs contain the viral structural protein. These results support the hypothesis that the nuclear import of SV40 is catalyzed through NPCs by an active transport mechanism that is similar to that of other karyophiles.