Canonical and Divergent N-Terminal HBx Isoform Proteins Unveiled: Characteristics and Roles during HBV Replication.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) X protein (HBx) is a viral regulatory and multifunctional protein. It is well-known that the canonical HBx reading frame bears two phylogenetically conserved internal in-frame translational initiation codons at Met2 and Met3, thus possibly generating divergent N-terminal smaller isoforms during translation. Here, we demonstrate that the three distinct HBx isoforms are generated from the ectopically expressed HBV HBx gene, named XF (full-length), XM (medium-length), and XS (short-length); they display different subcellular localizations when expressed individually in cultured hepatoma cells. Particularly, the smallest HBx isoform, XS, displayed a predominantly cytoplasmic localization. To study HBx proteins during viral replication, we performed site-directed mutagen

SUBMITTER: Hernandez S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8616016 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature