Intracellular localization and effects of individually expressed human parechovirus 1 non-structural proteins

Abstract

Human parechovirus 1 (HPEV-1) has many unique features compared with other picornaviruses and it has been shown that the replication complex formed during HPEV-1 infection is different from that of other picornaviruses. Here, the intracellular localization and functional effects of individually expressed HPEV-1 non-structural proteins were studied. The 2A and 3D proteins were found diffusely in the cytoplasm and nucleus of the cell. The 3A and 3AB proteins were observed to co-localize with the markers for the Golgi apparatus, whereas 2B co-localized with markers for the endoplasmic reticulum and the 2C and 2BC proteins were observed mainly on the surface of lipid droplets. The 2C protein, which has been implicated in replication-complex formation in enterovirus-infected cells, was not able to induce vesicles similar to those seen in HPEV-1-infected cells when expressed individually. However, in superinfected cells, the fusion protein was able to relocate to the virus replication complexes. Similar to other picornaviruses, HPEV-1 was found to interfere with cellular secretion, but this function could not be ascribed to any of the individually expressed non-structural proteins.