Duck enteritis virus (DEV) UL54 protein, a novel partner, interacts with DEV UL24 protein.

Background: UL24 is a multifunctional protein that is conserved among alphaherpesviruses and is believed to play an important role in viral infection and replication.

Results: In this paper, to investigate putative UL24-binding proteins and to explore the functional mechanisms of DEV UL24, yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) was carried out, and further verified the interaction between UL24 and partners by co-immunoprecipitation and fluorescence microscopy experiments. Interaction partners of UL24 protein were screened by yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) with the cDNA library of DEV-CHv strain post-infection DEF cells. A novel partner, DEV UL54 protein, was discovered by Y2H screening and bioinformatic. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments suggested that DEV UL24 interacted with UL54 proteins. And distribution of a part of UL54 protein was changed from nucleus to cytoplasm in DF-1 cells of co-subcellular localization experiments which also showed that DEV UL24 interacted with UL54 proteins.

Conclusions: The interaction between the DEV UL24 and UL54 proteins was discovered for the first time. Thus, DEV UL54 protein as a novel partner interacted with DEV UL24 protein.