Complementary Roles of Multiple Nuclear Targeting Signals in the Capsid Proteins of the Parvovirus Minute Virus of Mice during Assembly and Onset of Infection

ABSTRACT This report describes the distribution of conventional nuclear localization sequences (NLS) and of a beta-stranded so-called nuclear localization motif (NLM) in the two proteins (VP1, 82 kDa; VP2, 63 kDa) forming the T=1 icosahedral capsid of the parvovirus minute virus of mice (MVM) and their functions in viral biogenesis and the onset of infection. The approximately 10 VP1 molecules assembled in the MVM particle harbor in its 142-amino-acid (aa) N-terminal-specific region four clusters of basic amino acids, here called BC1 (aa 6 to 10), BC2 (aa 87 to 90), BC3 (aa 109 to 115), and BC4 (aa 126 to 130), that fit consensus NLS and an NLM placed toward the opposite end of the polypeptide (aa 670 to 680) found to be necessary for VP2 nuclear uptake. Deletions and site-directed mutations constructed in an infectious MVM plasmid showed that BC1, BC2, and NLM are cooperative nuclear transport sequences in singly expressed VP1 subunits and that they conferred nuclear targeting competence on the VP1/VP2 oligomers arising in normal infection, while BC3 and BC4 did not display nuclear transport activity. Notably, VP1 proteins mutated at BC1 and -2, and particularly with BC1 to -4 sequences deleted, induced nuclear and cytoplasmic foci of colocalizing conjugated ubiquitin that could be rescued from the ubiquitin-proteasome degradation pathway by the coexpression of VP2 and NS2 isoforms. These results suggest a role for VP2 in viral morphogenesis by assisting cytoplasmic folding of VP1/VP2 subviral complexes, which is further supported by the capacity of NLM-bearing transport-competent VP2 subunits to recruit VP1 into the nuclear capsid assembly pathway regardless of the BC composition. Instead, all four BC sequences, which are located in the interior of the capsid, were absolutely required by the incoming infectious MVM particle for the onset of infection, suggesting either an important conformational change or a disassembly of the coat for nuclear entry of a VP1-associated viral genome. Therefore, the evolutionarily conserved BC sequences and NLM domains provide complementary nuclear transport functions to distinct supramolecular complexes of capsid proteins during the autonomous parvovirus life cycle.