An essential step during the intracellular life cycle of many positive-strand RNA viruses is the rearrangement of host cell membranes to generate membrane-bound replication platforms. For example, Nidovirales and Flaviviridae subvert the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for their replication. However, the absence of conventional ER and secretory pathway markers in virus-induced ER-derived membranes has for a long time hampered a thorough understanding of their biogenesis. Recent reports highlight the analogies between mouse hepatitis virus-, equine arteritis virus-, and Japanese encephalitis virus-induced replication platforms and ER-associated degradation (ERAD) tuning vesicles (or EDEMosomes) that display nonlipidated LC3 at their cytosolic face and segregate the ERAD factors EDEM1, OS-9, and SEL1L from the ER lumen. In this Gem, we briefly summarize the current knowledge on ERAD tuning pathways and how they might be hijacked for viral genome replication. As ERAD tuning components, such as SEL1L and nonlipidated LC3, appear to contribute to viral infection, these cellular pathways represent novel candidate drug targets to combat positive-strand RNA viruses.
QUALITY CONTROL OPERATING IN THE ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM
Secreted and membrane proteins are synthesized, folded, and assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Acquisition of the native protein structure is assisted by a broad spectrum of resident molecular chaperones and folding enzymes that catalyze rate-limiting reactions, such as the formation of the correct configuration of disulfide and peptidyl-prolyl bonds. A dedicated quality control system ensures that only correctly folded and assembled proteins leave the ER and are transported along the secretory pathway to reach their final destination. Misfolded proteins are retrotranslocated (dislocated) into the cytosol, polyubiquitylated, and then degraded by 26S proteasomes, a process known as ER-associated degradation (ERAD) (1).
FOLDING AND ERAD IN THE BALANCEThe ERAD machinery can hardly distinguish nonnative intermediates of ongoing folding programs (which should be preserved) from nonnative side products of the folding process (which should be eliminated). As such, hyper-ERAD may result in lossof-function phenotypes upon inappropriate degradation of folding intermediates, whereas hypo-ERAD may cause gain-of-toxicfunction phenotypes upon accumulation of misfolded proteins. Therefore, a tight regulation of the ERAD capacity and its prompt adaptation to fluctuations in the ER cargo load is crucial to maintain cellular proteostasis. To large or prolonged variations of ER homeostasis (e.g., upon differentiation in highly secretory cells, exposure to drugs affecting sugar, calcium or redox homeostasis, widespread accumulation of misfolded polypeptides, challenges with pathogen) cells may respond by induction of the unfolded protein response (UPR) that consists in enhanced transcription/ translation of ER-resident folding and degradation factors and expansion of the ER volume. Smaller or mo...