Research
The role of glycoprotein H of equine herpesviruses 1 and 4 (EHV-1 and EHV-4) in cellular host range and integrin binding
- † Equal contributors
1 Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Philippstrasse 13, Haus 18, 10115, Berlin, Germany
2 Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
Veterinary Research 2012, 43:61 doi:10.1186/1297-9716-43-61
Published: 21 August 2012Abstract
Equine herpesvirus type 1 and 4 (EHV-1 and EHV-4) glycoprotein H (gH) has been hypothesized to play a role in direct fusion of the virus envelope with cellular membranes. To investigate gH’s role in infection, an EHV-1 mutant lacking gH was created and the gH genes were exchanged between EHV-1 and EHV-4 to determine if gH affects cellular entry and/or host range. In addition, a serine-aspartic acid-isoleucine (SDI) integrin-binding motif present in EHV-1 gH was mutated as it was presumed important in cell entry mediated by binding to α4β1 or α4β7 integrins. We here document that gH is essential for EHV-1 replication, plays a role in cell-to-cell spread and significantly affects plaque size and growth kinetics. Moreover, we could show that α4β1 and α4β7 integrins are not essential for viral entry of EHV-1 and EHV-4, and that viral entry is not affected in equine cells when the integrins are inaccessible.
