Hi, anybody knows about NLS? Quite a lot of virus proteins contain this NLS and it is claimed that NLS is responsible for nuclear localization. My question is whether NLS alone is enough for the transporting of proteins into the nucleus? Why does the virus protein need to be in the nucleus?

Anyone working on this?

Thanks.

aegypti said:

Hi, anybody knows about NLS? Quite a lot of virus proteins contain this NLS and it is claimed that NLS is responsible for nuclear localization. My question is whether NLS alone is enough for the transporting of proteins into the nucleus? Why does the virus protein need to be in the nucleus? Anyone working on this? Thanks.

NLS alone is sometimes not sufficient for the localization into nucleus unless it has been shown to do that. Many virus protein need to be in the nucleus to control the replication or transcription of the virus DNA or RNA using the host machine. That is why they definately need to be present in the nucleus.

Thanks a lot, Tracy. I have one more doubt.

For a positive strand RNA virus such as JEV, DENV, HCV, WNV etc., it can utilize host ribosome to tranlate its negative strand. Besides, it can also replicate its own RNA using its RNA dependent RNA polymerase. Since everything seems can be done in the cytoplasm, why does the protein need to be in the nucleus?

Thanks.

aegypti said:

Thanks a lot, Tracy. I have one more doubt. For a positive strand RNA virus such as JEV, DENV, HCV, WNV etc., it can utilize host ribosome to tranlate its negative strand. Besides, it can also replicate its own RNA using its RNA dependent RNA polymerase. Since everything seems can be done in the cytoplasm, why does the protein need to be in the nucleus? Thanks.

I guess this is a million-dollar question for us. Scientists are still looking for the answers. But they must do something there, otherwise, it is just a waste of energy.