Rachael Liesman (Illinois Wesleyan University) and Konstantin G. Kousoulas, LSUSVM Pathobiological Sciences

In Vivo demonstration of Protein-Protein Interactions between Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 UL20 and gK during viral egress from infected cells


Recent evidence suggests a functional relationship between Herpes Simplex virus type-1 UL20 and gK. We sought to demonstrate that UL20 and gK specifically interact using a split-ubiquitin yeast two-hybrid system. Contrasting with traditional yeast two-hybrid experiments, the split-ubiquitin yeast two-hybrid system allows us to investigate interactions between integral membrane proteins such as gK and UL20. Confocal microscopy was also used to determine the intracellular localization of UL20 and gK. UL20 has been successfully fused into the bait vector and shown, through interactions with a control prey vector, to be properly inserted into the membrane. UL20 and gK have been shown to co-localize to the trans-golgi network (TGN) by confocal microscopy.