DNA-Binding Properties of African Swine Fever Virus pA104R, a Histone-Like Protein Involved in Viral Replication and Transcription

MPORTANCE Recently reintroduced in Europe, African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes a fatal disease in domestic pigs, causing high economic losses in affected countries, as no vaccine or treatment is currently available. Remarkably, ASFV is the only known mammalian virus that putatively codes for a histone-like protein (pA104R) that shares extensive sequence homology with bacterial histone-like proteins. In this study, we characterized the DNA-binding properties of pA104R, analyzed the functional importance of two conserved residues, and showed that pA104R and ASFV topoisomerase II cooperate and display DNA-supercoiling activity. Moreover, pA104R is expressed during the late phase of infection and accumulates in viral DNA replication sites, and its downregulation revealed that pA104R is required for viral DNA replication and transcription. These results suggest that pA104R participates in the modulation of viral DNA topology and genome packaging, indicating that A104R deletion mutants may be a good strategy for vaccine development against ASFV.See it on Scoop.it, via Viruses and Bioinformatics from Virology.uvic.ca
DNA-Binding Properties of African Swine Fever Virus pA104R, a Histone-Like Protein Involved in Viral Replication and Transcription
Source: Viral Bioinformatics