Samples were titrated on either Vero or G5 cells by using a standard plaque assay. cells. Subsequent analyses of HSV-infected cells by immunogold electron microscopy and live-cell confocal imaging exposed a populace of UL16 that does GCSF not merely accumulate on mitochondria but in truth makes dynamic contacts with these organelles inside a time-dependent manner. These findings suggest that the website relationships of UL16 serve to regulate not just the interaction of this tegument protein with its viral binding partners but also its relationships with mitochondria. The purpose of this novel interaction remains to be identified. IMPORTANCE The HSV-1-encoded tegument protein UL16 is involved in multiple events of the computer virus replication cycle, ranging from computer virus assembly to cell-cell spread of the computer virus, and hence it can serve as an important drug target. Unfortunately, a lack of both structural and functional information limits our understanding of this protein. The discovery of domain name interactions within UL16 and the novel ability of UL16 to interact with mitochondria in HSV-infected cells lays a foundational framework for future investigations aimed at deciphering the structure and function of not just UL16 of HSV-1 but also its homologs in other herpesviruses. binding assays to confirm CT-CT (or NT-CT) interactions were not possible because of difficulties in purifying the cysteine-rich C-terminal domain name from lysates. Attempts to find self-association of the N-terminal domain name were also made. For this purpose, sNT-HA was coexpressed with NT-GFP in Vero cells. Confocal microscopy revealed that only a meager population of NT-GFP responded to the presence of sNT-HA (not shown). Experiments with swapped tags on these proteins were discouraging because NT-HA was found to be expressed very Diphenylpyraline hydrochloride poorly, even in cotransfections. Thus, we found no evidence for self-interaction of the N-terminal domain name. Addition of myristate causes CT to accumulate on mitochondria. Although the evidence for interactions between the N- and C-terminal domains of UL16 was clear, we were surprised to find that the first 10 residues of Src, which include a myristoylation signal and three basic (lysine) residues for membrane binding, directed CT to subcellular locations different from those observed for full-length UL16 (Fig. 5). All the cells expressing full-length UL16 had signals near the cell periphery, but this was found in only 20% of cells expressing the sCT-HA chimera (not shown). Open in a separate window FIG 5 Addition of myristate directs CT but not full-length UL16 to mitochondria. Plasmids encoding the indicated constructs were Diphenylpyraline hydrochloride transfected into Vero cells, and at 16 to 20 h posttransfection, the cells were stained with MitoTracker Red. The cells were then fixed and costained with a mouse anti-HA monoclonal antibody followed by incubation with an Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated secondary Diphenylpyraline hydrochloride antibody (green). Nuclei were revealed by staining with DAPI (blue). Images were collected with a confocal microscope, and representative stacks are shown. To gain insight into the nature of the cellular compartments where the majority of sCT-HA accumulated in punctate structures, a variety of organellar markers were utilized (not shown). To our surprise, the results revealed that sCT-HA colocalized completely with staining for the mt-hsp70 antibody, a mitochondrial marker, Diphenylpyraline hydrochloride and not Diphenylpyraline hydrochloride with Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) markers (not shown). Costaining of sCT-HA with MitoTracker Red (a mitochondrion-staining dye) confirmed the overlap of sCT-HA signals and mitochondrial signals (Fig. 5). However, the full-length Src-tagged version of UL16 (sUL16-HA) not only failed to colocalize with both mitochondrial markers (Fig..