Sequence requirements for proteolytic processing of glycoprotein B of human cytomegalovirus strain Towne.

Truncated versions of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) strain Towne glycoprotein B (gB) gene were stably expressed in CHO cell lines. The calcium-specific ionophore A23187 inhibited proteolytic cleavage of C-terminal-truncated gB expressed by cell line 67.77. These inhibition studies also showed that the 93-kilodalton cleavage product most likely represents the N-terminal cleavage fragment of gB. The ionophore carboxyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl-hydrazone was used to show that proteolytic cleavage of gB did not occur in the endoplasmic reticulum. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis demonstrated that the N- and C-terminal cleavage products of gB remained associated by disulfide linkages after cleavage. Expression studies using constructs in which 80% or all of the N terminus was deleted demonstrated that the N terminus was required for secretion of the gB molecule. The amino acid sequence at the site of cleavage was shown to be critical for cleavage by a cellular protease. Our results indicate that an arginine-to-threonine change at either amino acid 457 or 460, a lysine-to-glutamine change at amino acid 459, or all three substitutions together block gB cleavage. The effect on proteolysis of the arginine-to-threonine amino acid change at residue 457 (position -4 relative to the cleavage site) demonstrated that a basic pair of amino acids at the endoproteolytic processing site is not the only requirement in cis for gB cleavage.