The SARS Coronavirus E Protein Interacts with PALS1 and Alters Tight Junction Formation and Epithelial Morphogenesis

Teoh, Kim-Tat; Siu, Yu-Lam; Chan, Wing-Lim; Schlüter, Marc A.; Liu, Chia-Jen; Peiris, J. S. Malik; Bruzzone, Roberto; Margolis, Benjamin; Nal, Béatrice

As expected, the S and E proteins both localized at the ERGIC site in infected Vero E6 cells (Figure 3A, panels a–c, white arrow). PALS1 was mainly localized at cell–cell junctions in monolayers of non infected Vero E6 cells (Figure 3A, panels d and e, red arrow). Strikingly, in infected cells, PALS1 was found in the perinuclear region, where it partially colocalized with SARS-S protein (Figure 3A, panels d-e, white arrowhead). Moreover, colabeling of PALS1 and ERGIC-53 in infected samples indicated the presence of PALS1 in this later compartment (Figure 3A, panel f, white arrowhead). These data suggest that PALS1 is retained at the virus-assembly site in SARS-CoV infected cells where it may interact with E.