Human cytomegalovirus UL97 phosphorylates the viral nuclear egress complex

Herpesvirus nucleocapsids exit the host cell nucleus in an unusual process known as nuclear egress. The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) UL97 protein kinase is required for efficient nuclear egress, which can be explained by its phosphorylation of the nu-clear lamina component lamin A/C, which disrupts the nuclear lamina. We found that a dominant negative lamin A/Cmutant complemented the replication defect of a virus lacking UL97 in dividing cells, validating this explanation. However, as comple-mentation was incomplete, we investigated whether the HCMV nuclear egress complex (NEC) subunits UL50 and UL53, which are required for nuclear egress and recruit UL97 to the nuclear rim, are UL97 substrates. Using mass spectrometry, we detected UL97-dependent phosphorylation of UL50 residue S216 (UL50-S216) and UL53-S19 in infected cells. Moreover, UL53-S19 was specifically phosphorylated by UL97 in vitro. Notably, treatment of infected cells with the UL97 inhibitor maribavir or infection with aUL97mutant led to a punctate rather than a continuous distribution of the NEC at the nuclear rim. Alanine substitutions in both UL50-S216 and UL53-S19 resulted in a punctate distribution of the NEC in infected cells and also decreased virus pro-duction and nuclear egress in the absence of maribavir. These results indicate that UL97 phosphorylates the NEC and suggest that this phosphorylation modulates nuclear egress. Thus, the UL97-NEC interaction appears to recruit UL97 to the nuclear rim both for disruption of the nuclear lamina and phosphorylation of the NEC. IMPORTANC