Chapter 4 - Bluetongue virus replication and assembly

Abstract

This chapter reviews insights from experimental studies into the molecular events that occur during Bluetongue virus (BTV) replication and assembly. Understanding of the assembly and replication of BTV and other orbiviruses has benefited greatly from detailed structural understanding of the viral core. However, a complete understanding of a virus replication cycle is possible only through the synthesis of structural, biochemical and cell biology data to build an overall model for how the virus completes all of the necessary steps to invade the host and evade innate and adaptive immune responses. By combining these approaches, it has been possible to provide a detailed understanding of the role of each of the viral proteins in virus replication and assembly. Also, recent work has revealed unexpected and striking parallels between the entry and release pathways of non-enveloped BTV and pathways involved in the entry and release of enveloped viruses. These parallels may be because BTV evolved from an enveloped ancestor virus, or because there simply are a limited number of cellular pathways that can be used for egress of large protein complexes from cells.