Host casein kinase 1-mediated phosphorylation modulates phase separation of a rhabdovirus phosphoprotein and virus infection
Abstract
Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) plays important roles in forming cellular membraneless organelles. However, how host factors regulate LLPS of viral proteins during negative-sense RNA (NSR) virus infection is largely unknown. Here, we used Barley yellow striate mosaic virus (BYSMV) as a model to demonstrate regulation of host casein kinase 1 in phase separation and infection of NSR viruses. We first found that the BYSMV phosphoprotein (P) formed spherical granules with liquid properties and recruited viral nucleotide (N) and polymerase (L) proteins in vivo. Moreover, the P-formed granules were tethered to the ER/actin network for trafficking and fusion. BYSMV P alone formed droplets and incorporated the N protein and the 5′ trailer of genomic RNA in vitro. Interestingly, phase separation of BYSMV P was inhibited by host casein kinase 1 (CK1)-dependent phosphorylation of an intrinsically disordered P protein region. Genetic assays demonstrated that the unphosphorylated mutant of BYSMV P exhibited condensed phase, which promoted viroplasm formation and virus replication. Whereas, the phosphorylation-mimic mutant existed in diffuse phase state for virus transcription. Collectively, our results demonstrate that host CK1 modulates phase separation of the viral P protein and virus infection.
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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file.
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Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31872920)
- Xian-Bing Wang
National Natural Science Foundation of China (32102150)
- Qiang Gao
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021T140713)
- Qiang Gao
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2022, Fang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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