Autophagic membranes participate in hepatitis B virus nucleocapsid assembly, precore and core protein trafficking, and viral release.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA replication takes place inside the viral core particle and is dependent on autophagy. Here we show that HBV core particles are associated with autophagosomes and phagophores in cells that productively replicate HBV. These autophagic membrane-associated core particles contain almost entirely the hypophosphorylated core protein and are DNA replication competent. As the hyperphosphorylated core protein can be localized to phagophores and the dephosphorylation of the core protein is associated with the packaging of viral pregenomic RNA (pgRNA), these results are in support of the model that phagophores can serve as the sites for the packaging of pgRNA. In contrast, in cells that replicate HBV, the precore protein derivatives, which are related to the core protein, a

SUBMITTER: Chu JYK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9335259 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature