Involvement of the CM2 ion channel activity in the influenza C virus replication cycle

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590560
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Virology
• Research Institution: Iwate Medical University (2014); Kanazawa Medical University (2012-2013)
• Principal Investigator: MURAKI Yasushi 岩手医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (00241688)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HONGO Seiji 山形大学, 医学部, 教授 (90229245) ; OKUWA Takako 金沢医科大学, 医学部, 研究員 (20460347)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): NODA Takeshi 東京大学, 医科学研究所, 准教授 (00422410)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: C型インフルエンザウイルス / CM2蛋白 / uncoating / packaging / 増殖過程 / スプライシング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of the present study is to elucidate the role of CM2, the second membrane protein of influenza C virus, in the virus replication, particularly with regard to the CM2 ion channel function. Toward this aim, we generated three recombinant influenza C viruses as follows: N11A; a recombinant virus lacking CM2 glycosylation, C1620A; a recombinant virus lacking CM2 oligomerization, CHC; a recombinant virus in which the CM2 transmembrane region was substituted with that of HEF (hemagglutinin-esterase-fusion). As a result, we obtained several lines of evidence that CM2 is involved in uncoating and packaging. Thus CM2 is shown to be an important pathogenic factor of influenza C virus, although the relationship between the roles of CM2 and its ion channel activity remains to be clarified, primarily due to the reduced expression level of CM2 or reduced splicing efficiency of the M gene in the virus-infected cells.

Free Research Field

ウイルス学