Functional interaction of nuclear domain 10 and its components with cytomegalovirus after infections: cross-species host cells versus native cells

Species-specificity is one of the major characteristics of cytomegaloviruses (CMVs) and is the primary reason for the lack of a mouse model for the direct infection of human CMV (HCMV). It has been determined that CMV cross-species infections are blocked at the post-entry level by intrinsic cellular defense mechanisms, but few details are known. It is important to explore how CMVs interact with the subnuclear structure of the cross-species host cell. In our present study, we discovered that nuclear domain 10 (ND10) of human cells was not disrupted by murine CMV (MCMV) and that the ND10 of mouse cells was not disrupted by HCMV, although the ND10-disrupting protein, immediate-early protein 1 (IE1), also colocalized with ND10 in cross-species infections. In addition, we found that the UL131-repaired HCMV strain AD169 (vDW215-BADrUL131) can infect mouse cells to produce immediate-early (IE) and early (E) proteins but that neither DNA replication nor viral particles were detectable in mouse cells. Unrepaired AD169 can express IE1 only in mouse cells. In both HCMV-infected mouse cells and MCMV-infected human cells, the knocking-down of ND10 components (PML, Daxx, and SP100) resulted in significantly increased viral-protein production. Our observations provide evidence to support our hypothesis that ND10 and ND10 components might be important defensive factors against the CMV cross-species infection.