Amino Acid Exchanges in the Putative Nuclear Export Signal of Adenovirus Type 5 L4-100K Severely Reduce Viral Progeny due to Effects on Hexon Biogenesis

Abstract

The adenovirus type 5 nonstructural L4-100K protein is indispensable for efficient lytic infection. During the late phase, L4-100K promotes selective translation of viral late transcripts and mediates the trimerization of the major capsid protein hexon. In the present study, the role of a potential nuclear export signal in L4-100K was investigated. Intriguingly, amino acid substitutions in this sequence resulted in severely diminished progeny virus production, seemingly by precluding proper hexon biogenesis.