Enterovirus 71 2A Protease Inhibits P-Body Formation To Promote Viral RNA Synthesis
Shanshan Fan, Zihang Xu, Pengfei Liu, Yali Qin, Mingzhou Chen
Abstract
Processing bodies (P-bodies) are constitutively present in eukaryotic cells and play an important role in the mRNA cycle, including regulation of gene expression and mRNA degradation. The P-body is the structure that viruses manipulate to facilitate their survival. Here, we show that the 2A protease alone was efficient to block P-body formation during enterovirus 71 infection, and its activity is essential. When the assembly of P-bodies was blocked by 2A protease, DDX6 and 4E-T, which were required for P-body formation, bound to viral RNA to facilitate viral RNA synthesis. We propose a model revealing that EV71 manipulates P-body formation to generate an environment that is conducive to viral replication by facilitating viral RNA synthesis: 2A protease blocked P-body assembly to make it possible for virus to take advantage of P-body components.