Progeny Varicella-Zoster Virus Capsids Exit the Nucleus but Never Undergo Secondary Envelopment during Autophagic Flux Inhibition by Bafilomycin A1

Girsch, James H.; Walters, Katherine; Jackson, Wallen; Grose, Charles

M acroautophagy (here called autophagy) is the subject of many recent articles by virologists. With regard to herpesviruses, interest was galvanized by the insightful observation that the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) neurovirulence protein ICP34.5 bound to Beclin 1, thereby inhibiting maturation of the autophagosome (1, 2) . Because several closely related herpesviruses, including varicella-zoster virus (VZV), do not contain an ICP34.5 gene homolog in their genomes (3) , autophagy studies were pursued with this virus to investigate differences from HSV-1. Based on the HSV-1 data, an early hypothesis stated that an autophagic response would impair VZV replication.