Remodeling nuclear architecture allows efficient transport of herpesvirus capsids by diffusion.

Publication Year
2015

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

The nuclear chromatin structure confines the movement of large macromolecular complexes to interchromatin corrals. Herpesvirus capsids of approximately 125 nm assemble in the nucleoplasm and must reach the nuclear membranes for egress. Previous studies concluded that nuclear herpesvirus capsid motility is active, directed, and based on nuclear filamentous actin, suggesting that large nuclear complexes need metabolic energy to escape nuclear entrapment. However, this hypothesis has recently been challenged. Commonly used microscopy techniques do not allow the imaging of rapid nuclear particle motility with sufficient spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we use a rotating, oblique light sheet, which we dubbed a ring-sheet, to image and track viral capsids with high temporal and spatial resolution. We do not find any evidence for directed transport. Instead, infection with different herpesviruses induced an enlargement of interchromatin domains and allowed particles to diffuse unrestricted over longer distances, thereby facilitating nuclear egress for a larger fraction of capsids.

Journal
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Volume
112
Issue
42
Pages
E5725-33
Date Published
10/2015
ISSN Number
1091-6490
Alternate Journal
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
PMID
26438852