Conserved Cysteines of a Putative Zinc Finger Motif in P48 Are Important for the Nuclear Egress of Nucleocapsids and the Envelopment of Occlusion-Derived Virions

The open reading frame 103 (<i>p48</i>) of Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) is one of the 38 core baculovirus genes. <i>p48</i> has been shown to be essential for the production of infectious budded virions (BVs), nuclear egress of nucleocapsids, envelopment of the nucleocapsid, and embedding of occlusion-derived virions (ODVs) into occlusion bodies (OBs). However, the structure-function relationship of P48 remains unclear. In this study, we showed that four conserved cysteines (C127, C130, C138, and C141) in P48 may form a zinc finger motif based on a predicted structure analysis, and we investigated the roles of these cysteines in P48 function. AcMNPV bacmids lacking <i>p48</i> or containing mutated <i>p48</i> were generated. Transfection/infection assays showed that C127, C130, C138, and C141 in P48 were crucial for infectious BV production. Electron microscopy analysis further confirmed that these four cysteines played critical roles in the transport of nucleocapsids out of the nucleus for BV production, and in ODV envelopment. These results demonstrate that the conserved cysteines C127, C130, C138, and C141, related to the putative zinc finger motif, are critical for P48 function in baculovirus infection.