Avian reovirus influences phosphorylation of several factors involved in host protein translation including eukaryotic translation elongation factor 2 (eEF2) in Vero cells

Viral infection usually influences cellular protein synthesis either actively or passively via modification of various translation initiation factors. Here we demonstrated that infection with avian reovirus (ARV) interfered with cellular protein synthesis. This study demonstrated for the first time that ARV influenced the phosphorylation of translation initiation factors including eIF4E and eIF-4G. Interestingly, ARV also induced phosphorylation of eukaryotic translation elongation factor (eEF2) in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Inhibition of mTOR by rapamycin notably increased the level of phosphorylated eEF2 in infected cells. However, rapamycin did not show any negative effects on ARV replication, suggesting that phosphorylation of eEF2 in infected cells did not reduce ARV propagation. These results demonstrated for the first time that ARV promotes phosphorylation of eEF2 which in turn influenced host protein production not simply by modulating the function of translation initiation factors but also by regulating elongation factor eEF2.