HSV Forms an HCMV-like Viral Assembly Center in Neuronal Cells

Abstract

22Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a neuroinvasive virus that has been used as a model organism 23for studying common properties of all herpesviruses. HSV induces host organelle 24 rearrangement and forms dispersed assembly compartments in epithelial cells, which 25 complicates the study of HSV assembly. In this study, we show that HSV forms a visually 26 distinct unitary cytoplasmic viral assembly center (cVAC) in both cancerous and primary 27 neuronal cells that concentrates viral structural proteins and is the site of capsid envelopment. 28The HSV cVAC also concentrates host membranes that are important for viral assembly, such 29as Golgi-and recycling endosome-derived membranes. Lastly, we show that HSV cVAC 30 formation and/or maintenance depends on an intact microtubule network and a viral tegument 31 protein, pUL51. Our observations suggest that the neuronal cVAC is a uniquely useful model to 32 study common herpesvirus assembly pathways, and cell-specific pathways for membrane 33 reorganization. 34 35