An amino acid of human parainfluenza virus type 3 nucleoprotein is critical for template function and cytoplasmic inclusion body formation.

The nucleoprotein (N) and phosphoprotein (P) interaction of nonsegmented negative-strand RNA viruses is essential for viral replication; this includes N⁰-P (N⁰, free of RNA) interaction and the interaction of N-RNA with P. The precise site(s) within N that mediates the N-P interaction and the detailed regulating mechanism, however, are less clear. Using a human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3) minigenome assay, we found that an N mutant (N(L478A) did not support reporter gene expression. Using in vivo and in vitro coimmunoprecipitation, we found that N(L478A) maintains the ability to form N(L478A)⁰-P, to self-assemble, and to form N(L478A)-RNA but that N(L478A)-RNA does not interact with P. Using an immunofluorescence assay, we found that N-P interaction provides the minimal requirement for the formation of cytoplasmic inclusion bodies, which contain viral RNA, N, P, and polymerase in HPIV3-infected cells. N(L478A) was unable to form inclusion bodies when coexpressed with P, but the presence of N rescued the ability of N(L478A) to form inclusion bodies and the transcriptional function of N(L478A), thereby suggesting that hetero-oligomers formed by N and N(L478A) are functional and competent to form inclusion bodies. Furthermore, we found that N(L478A) is also defective in virus growth. To our knowledge, we are the first to use a paramyxovirus to identify a precise amino acid within N that is critical for N-RNA and P interaction but not for N(0)-P interaction for the formation of inclusion bodies, which appear to be bona fide sites of RNA synthesis.