A novel chromosome region maintenance 1-independent nuclear export signal of the large form of hepatitis delta antigen that is required for the viral assembly.

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a satellite virus of hepatitis B virus, as it requires hepatitis B virus for virion production and transmission. We have previously demonstrated that sequences within the C-terminal 19-amino acid domain flanking the isoprenylation motif of the large hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg-L) are important for virion assembly. In this study, site-directed mutagenesis and immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that in the absence of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg), the wild-type HDAg-L was localized in the nuclei of transfected COS7 cells. Nevertheless, in the presence of HBsAg, the HDAg-L became both nuclei- and cytoplasm-distributed in about half of the cells. An HDAg-L mutant with a substitution of Pro-205 to alanine could neither form HDV-like particles nor shift the subcellular localization in the presence of HBsAg. In addition, nuclear trafficking of HDAg-L in heterokaryons indicated that HDAg-L is a nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein. A proline-rich HDAg peptide spanning amino acid residues 198 to 210, designated NES(HDAg-L), can function as a nuclear export signal (NES) in Xenopus oocytes. Pro-205 is critical for the NES function. Furthermore, assembly of HDV is insensitive to leptomycin B, indicating that the NES(HDAg-L) directs nuclear export of HDAg-L to the cytoplasm via a chromosome region maintenance 1-independent pathway.