DNA virus replication compartments

Abstract

Viruses employ a variety of strategies to usurp and control cellular activities through the orchestrated recruitment of macromolecules to specific cytoplasmic or nuclear compartments. Formation of such specialized virus-induced cellular microenvironments, which have been termed viroplasms, virus factories, or virus replication centers, complexes, or compartments, depends on molecular interactions between viral and cellular factors that participate in viral genome expression and replication and are in some cases associated with sites of virion assembly. These virus-induced compartments function not only to recruit and concentrate factors required for essential steps of the viral replication cycle but also to control the cellular mechanisms of antiviral defense. In this review, we summarize characteristic features of viral replication compartments from different virus families and discuss similarities in the viral and cellular activities that are associated with their assembly and the functions they facilitate for viral replication.

FIG 1

Scheme of DNA virus replication compartments, indicating localization within the cytoplasm or nucleus. In particular, the virus families Polyomaviridae, Papillomaviridae, Adenoviridae, and Herpesviridae as well as NCLDV and autonomous parvoviruses are shown. Viral factors and proteins are indicated in green and cellular ones are gray, with PML-NBs, which play a prominent role during replication of Polyomaviridae, Papillomaviridae, Adenoviridae, and Herpesviridae, shown in blue.