The accumulating evidence indicates that the viral structural proteins play critical roles in virus infection. However, the interaction between the viral structural protein and host cytoskeleton protein in virus infection remains to be addressed. In this study, the viral VP466 protein, one of the major structural proteins of shrimp white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), was characterized. The results showed that the suppression of VP466 gene expression led to the inhibition of WSSV infection in shrimp, indicating that the VP466 protein was required in virus invasion. It was found that the VP466 protein was interacted with the host cytoskeleton protein tropomyosin. As documented, the VP466-tropomyosin interaction facilitated the WSSV infection. Therefore our findings revealed a novel molecular mechanism in the virus invasion to its host, which would be helpful to better understand the molecular events in virus infection in invertebrate.
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