Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) glycoprotein B (gB) is highly conserved among the human herpesviruses (reviewed in reference
61). It functions in virus entry by promoting fusion of the virion envelope with the plasma membrane, cell-cell spread in nonpolarized human fibroblasts, and syncytium formation (
55,
89). gB is a major component of the virion envelope and elicits a strong neutralizing antibody and cytotoxic T-cell immune response in infected individuals (
33,
40,
54; reviewed in reference
67). CMV(AD169) gB is a type I glycoprotein, 906 amino acids (aa) in length (
15), which is glycosylated at
N- and
O-linked sites (
31,
62,
68), cleaved by the endoprotease furin (
81,
82,
93), folded in the endoplasmic reticulum with the aid of protein chaperones (
96,
98), and assembled into dimers (
10).
CMV replication in epithelial cells is a crucial step in invasion of the body and the dissemination of infection. In newborns, organ transplant recipients, and immunocompromised patients, human CMV causes disease in tissues composed of epithelial cells, including the salivary gland, lung, kidney, colon, and, in patients with AIDS, the retina (reviewed in references
9,
18, and
28). Epithelial cells that carry out secretory functions have evolved distinct domains divided by tight junctions into apical (AP) and basolateral (BL) membranes, which have different compositions of protein and lipids that are maintained through vectorial secretory pathways (reviewed in references
19,
77, and
78). How CMV enters and egresses from epithelial cells in body tissues is poorly understood, since most of our knowledge of CMV replication was acquired by studies carried out with human fibroblasts. Cultures of primary human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells support CMV replication (
17,
50), and we used a human RPE cell line, ARPE-19, to examine the process of entry and cell-cell spread in epithelial cells. When cultured on permeable filter supports, ARPE-19 cells differentiate, forming distinct AP and BL membrane domains (
20). We reported that CMV enters ARPE-19 cells asymmetrically through the AP membrane domain, facilitated by gB (
88). In contrast, an accessory glycoprotein, gpUS9, promotes the transmission of infection from cell to cell (
44,
45), suggesting that different glycoproteins may function in vectorial trafficking of progeny virions. Examination of CMV-infected ARPE-19 cells by immunofluorescence laser scanning confocal microscopy showed that gB is sorted to AP membranes; infectivity studies indicate that virions are released predominantly from this membrane domain (
88). AP release would promote CMV infection of other epithelial cells, whereas spread of virus across BL membranes would transmit infection to adjacent cells and other types of susceptible cells in contact with the epithelial surface.
In polarized epithelial cells, selective delivery of membrane-anchored glycoproteins is regulated by the formation and targeting of transport vesicles along the secretory route (reviewed in reference
48). Vectorial transport to AP or BL membranes occurs in vesicles that bud from the
trans Golgi network. Studies with polarized Madine-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells reported that membrane-anchored proteins contain signals in the cytosolic domain that recruit them into clathrin-coated pits that are internalized from the cell surface (reviewed in reference
11). Certain proteins are delivered first to one (BL) membrane domain and then endocytosed and transcytosed to the opposite (AP) membrane (
51,
80). Asymmetrical release of influenza virus, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and others from MDCK cells is regulated by vectorial sorting of the virion envelope glycoproteins by means of specific determinants (
22,
34,
42,
71,
84). Our observation that gB was sorted to the AP membrane domain of CMV-infected epithelial cells suggested that it may contain autonomous targeting information that directs virion-containing vesicles to AP membranes.
Since ARPE-19 cells lose their polarized properties following transfection and vectorial sorting cannot be studied in transiently transfected cells because polarity is lost, in the present study we used stably transfected MDCK cells to evaluate the transport of gB independently of other viral glycoproteins. Examination of wild-type (WT) gB transport in MDCK cells showed that it was targeted apically as in CMV-infected human ARPE-19 cells. This indicated that gB specifies autonomous determinants for vectorial trafficking in the secretory pathway of polarized epithelial cells. We found that deletions in the transmembrane (TM) anchor (aa 751 to 771) and cytosolic domain (aa 834 to 906) disrupt the AP membrane targeting, as do site-specific mutations that delete or modify the charge of an acidic cluster with a casein kinase II (CKII) phosphorylation site (aa 899 to 904). Targeting determinants in the luminal domain and TM anchor of gB resemble those of other apically sorted glycoproteins. In contrast, the cytosolic domain contains potential determinants for internalization from the cell surface, which may direct gB to endocytic vesicles and the recycling pathway and function to missort derivatives with partial deletions in the carboxyl terminus.