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Review
. 2012 Nov 30;4(12):3440-51.
doi: 10.3390/v4123440.

Involvement of autophagy in coronavirus replication

Helena J Maier  1 , Paul Britton
Affiliations
Review

Involvement of autophagy in coronavirus replication

Helena J Maier et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Coronaviruses are single stranded, positive sense RNA viruses, which induce the rearrangement of cellular membranes upon infection of a host cell. This provides the virus with a platform for the assembly of viral replication complexes, improving efficiency of RNA synthesis. The membranes observed in coronavirus infected cells include double membrane vesicles. By nature of their double membrane, these vesicles resemble cellular autophagosomes, generated during the cellular autophagy pathway. In addition, coronavirus infection has been demonstrated to induce autophagy. Here we review current knowledge of coronavirus induced membrane rearrangements and the involvement of autophagy or autophagy protein microtubule associated protein 1B light chain 3 (LC3) in coronavirus replication.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Double membrane vesicles induced by infectious bronchitis virus infection of Vero cells. Vero cells were infected with the Beau-R strain of IBV. Cells were glutaraldehyde fixed at 16 h post infection and prepared for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Double membrane vesicles are indicated by arrows, scale bar indicates 1 µm.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic of mammalian autophagy pathway. MTOR is the major control complex for autophagy. MTOR senses levels of amino acids, glucose and growth factors, as well as genotoxic and ER stress. Upon stimulatory signals, MTOR becomes inactivated and the ULK complex becomes hypophosphorylated and relocalises to the phagophore, along with PIP3, produced by class III PI3K complexes. The Atg16L complex and LC3II are also recruited to the growing autophagosome, allowing expansion of the membrane and fusion to give a complete autophagosome, engulfing organelles, aggregated proteins and intracellular pathogens. The autophagosome then fuses with a lysosome, resulting in the degradation of the contents and recycling of nutrients into the cytoplasm.
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