SUMMARY
Many RNA viruses remodel intracellular membranes to generate specialized sites for RNA replication. How membranes are remodeled and what properties make them conducive for replication are unknown. Here we show how RNA viruses can manipulate multiple components of the cellular secretory pathway to generate organelles specialized for replication that are distinct in protein and lipid composition from the host cell. Specific viral proteins modulate effector recruitment by Arf1 GTPase and its guanine nucleotide exchange factor GBF1, promoting preferential recruitment of phosphatidylinositol-4-kinase IIIβ (PI4KIIIβ) to membranes over coat proteins, yielding uncoated phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI4P) lipid-enriched organelles. The PI4P-rich lipid micro-environment is essential for both enteroviral and flaviviral RNA replication; PI4KIIIβ inhibition interferes with this process; and enteroviral RNA polymerases specifically bind PI4P. These findings reveal how RNA viruses can selectively exploit specific elements of the host to form specialized organelles where cellular phosphoinositide lipids are key to regulating viral RNA replication.
Replication of all positive-strand RNA viruses is intimately associated with membranes. Here we utilize electron tomography and other methods to investigate the remodeling of membranes in poliovirus-infected cells. We found that the viral replication structures previously described as "vesicles" are in fact convoluted, branching chambers with complex and dynamic morphology. They are likely to originate from cis-Golgi membranes and are represented during the early stages of infection by singlewalled connecting and branching tubular compartments. These early viral organelles gradually transform into doublemembrane structures by extension of membranous walls and/or collapsing of the luminal cavity of the single-membrane structures. As the double-membrane regions develop, they enclose cytoplasmic material. At this stage, a continuous membranous structure may have double-and single-walled membrane morphology at adjacent cross-sections. In the late stages of the replication cycle, the structures are represented mostly by double-membrane vesicles. Viral replication proteins, doublestranded RNA species, and actively replicating RNA are associated with both double-and single-membrane structures. However, the exponential phase of viral RNA synthesis occurs when single-membrane formations are predominant in the cell. It has been shown previously that replication complexes of some other positive-strand RNA viruses form on membrane invaginations, which result from negative membrane curvature. Our data show that the remodeling of cellular membranes in poliovirusinfected cells produces structures with positive curvature of membranes. Thus, it is likely that there is a fundamental divergence in the requirements for the supporting cellular membrane-shaping machinery among different groups of positive-strand RNA viruses.
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