Rotavirus is a major cause of infantile viral gastroenteritis. Rotavirus nonstructural protein 4 (NSP4) has pleiotropic properties and functions in viral morphogenesis as well as pathogenesis. Recent reports show that the inhibition of NSP4 expression by small interfering RNAs leads to alteration of the production and distribution of other viral proteins and mRNA synthesis, suggesting that NSP4 also affects virus replication by unknown mechanisms. This report describes studies aimed at correlating the localization of intracellular NSP4 in cells with its functions. To be able to follow the localization of NSP4, we fused the C terminus of full-length NSP4 with the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and expressed this fusion protein inducibly in a HEK 293-based cell line to avoid possible cytotoxicity. NSP4-EGFP was initially localized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) as documented by Endo H-sensitive glycosylation and colocalization with ER marker proteins. Only a small fraction of NSP4-EGFP colocalized with the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) marker ERGIC-53. NSP4-EGFP did not enter the Golgi apparatus, in agreement with the Endo H sensitivity and a previous report that secretion of an NSP4 cleavage product generated in rotavirus-infected cells is not inhibited by brefeldin A. A significant population of expressed NSP4-EGFP was distributed in novel vesicular structures throughout the cytoplasm, not colocalizing with ER, ERGIC, Golgi, endosomal, or lysosomal markers, thus diverging from known biosynthetic pathways. The appearance of vesicular NSP4-EGFP was dependent on intracellular calcium levels, and vesicular NSP4-EGFP colocalized with the autophagosomal marker LC3. In rotavirus-infected cells, NSP4 colocalized with LC3 in cap-like structures associated with viroplasms, the site of nascent viral RNA replication, suggesting a possible new mechanism for the involvement of NSP4 in virus replication.Rotavirus causes an age-dependent and potentially lifethreatening dehydrating viral gastroenteritis in small animals and young children worldwide. The mechanism of rotavirusinduced diarrhea is not fully understood, but it is caused in part by the first described viral enterotoxin-rotavirus nonstructural protein 4 (NSP4) (3, 11). NSP4 has pleiotropic properties in cells related to its involvement in both rotavirus pathogenesis and morphogenesis (reviewed in references 4 and 11). Peritoneal injection or luminal administration of NSP4 into 6-to 10-day-old mice causes an age-and dose-dependent diarrhea within hours after inoculation. This diarrhea is due to extracellular NSP4 stimulating a transient, receptor-mediated phospholipase C activation, leading to elevated intracellular calcium levels and subsequent chloride secretion (3,8,22). Further studies have shown that a 66-amino-acid (aa) NSP4 cleavage product, which retains enterotoxigenic activity, is secreted into the media of rotavirus-infected cells early postinfection by a brefeldin A resistant mechanism, suggesting the existence of a nonclassical pa...