Title:
"An Alphaherpesvirus Structural Protein Regulates the Kinesin Motor to Drive Invasion of the Nervous System"
Dongho Kim, Graduate Student, Lab of Gregory A. Smith, PhD
Faculty Host: Gregory A. Smith, PhD
Topic:
Brief summary: Neurotropic alphaherpesviruses, including herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), recruit microtubule-associated motor proteins to invade the nervous system. The incoming viral particle captures the dynein-dynactin complex for sustained retrograde axonal transport to the centrosome in the neural soma. Our lab recently reported that HSV-1 captures kinesin-1 from epithelial cells, carries the motor between cells as a viral structural component, and subsequently uses the motor to transport from the centrosome to the nucleus in neurons. We refer to this repurposing of a cellular protein as a proviral component of the virion architecture as assimilation. During this presentation, I will present data indicating that the incoming viral particle suppresses assimilated kinesin activity during dynein-mediated retrograde axonal transport and discuss how removal of this suppression at the centrosome may be key to redirect capsids to the nucleus and complete the neuroinvasive program.