Formation of nuclear foci of the herpes simplex virus type 1 regulatory protein ICP4 at early times of infection: localization, dynamics, recruitment of ICP27, and evidence for the de novo induction of ND10-like complexes.

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) has an intricate association with cellular nuclear structures known as ND10 or promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) nuclear bodies. Parental viral genomes initially become juxtaposed to ND10, and then viral replication compartments develop from the ND10-associated genomes. Viral immediate-early (IE) regulatory protein ICP0 colocalizes with ND10 and then induces the degradation of critical ND10 component protein PML and therefore the release and dispersal of other ND10 proteins. The IE transcriptional regulatory protein ICP4 also forms foci at early times of infection, many of which are juxtaposed to ND10 and later develop into replication compartments, indicating that at least some of the initial ICP4 foci contain parental viral genomes. Here we report that the ICP4 foci also contain ICP27 and that their formation occurs extremely rapidly at locations just inside the nuclear envelope. By examining developing plaques or thinly seeded cells infected at high multiplicity, we found evidence to suggest that at least some of the ND10-viral nucleoprotein complex association could be attributed to de novo formation of ND10-like structures in response to incoming viral genomes. The ICP4 complexes associated efficiently with ND10 in cells infected with an ICP0-null mutant virus at high but not at low multiplicity, and the degree of association was reduced by the proteasome inhibitor MG132. Therefore, the interaction between viral nucleoprotein complexes and ND10 is in part due to a dynamic response by the cell. This response is modulated by functional ICP0, and cells that are productively or nonproductively infected in the absence of functional ICP0 can be distinguished by the relative locations of ICP4 foci and ND10 proteins.