Recombinant rotaviruses rescued by reverse genetics reveal the role of NSP5 hyperphosphorylation in the assembly of viral factories
Rotavirus (RV) replicates in round-shaped cytoplasmic viral factories although how they assemble remains unknown.\n\nDuring RV infection, NSP5 undergoes hyperphosphorylation, which is primed by the phosphorylation of a single serine residue. The role of this post-translational modification in the formation of viroplasms and its impact on the virus replication remains obscure. Here we investigated the role of NSP5 during RV infection by taking advantage of a modified fully tractable reverse genetics system. An NSP5 trans-complementing cell line was used to generate and characterise several recombinant rotaviruses (rRVs) with mutations in NSP5. We demonstrate that a rRV lacking NSP5, was completely unable to assemble viroplasms and to replicate, confirming its pivotal role in rotavirus replication.\n\nA number of mutants with impaired NSP5 phosphorylation were generated to further interrogate the function of this post-translational modification in the assembly of replication-competent viroplasms. We showed that the rRV mutant strains exhibit impaired viral replication and the ability to assemble round-shaped viroplasms in MA104 cells. Furthermore, we have investigated the mechanism of NSP5 hyper-phosphorylation during RV infection using NSP5 phosphorylation-negative rRV strains, as well as MA104-derived stable transfectant cell lines expressing either wt NSP5 or selected NSP5 deletion mutants. Our results indicate that NSP5 hyper-phosphorylation is a crucial step for the assembly of round-shaped viroplasms, highlighting the key role of the C-terminal tail of NSP5 in the formation of replication-competent viral factories. Such a complex NSP5 phosphorylation cascade may serve as a paradigm for the assembly of functional viral factories in other RNA viruses.\n\nIMPORTANCERotavirus (RV) double-stranded RNA genome is replicated and packaged into virus progeny in cytoplasmic structures termed viroplasms. The non-structural protein NSP5, which undergoes a complex hyperphosphorylation process during RV infection, is required for the formation of these virus-induced organelles. However, its roles in viroplasm formation and RV replication have never been directly assessed due to the lack of a fully tractable reverse genetics (RG) system for rotaviruses. Here we show a novel application of a recently developed RG system by establishing a stable trans-complementing NSP5-producing cell line required to rescue rotaviruses with mutations in NSP5. This approach allowed us to provide the first direct evidence of the pivotal role of this protein during RV replication. Furthermore, using recombinant RV mutants we shed light on the molecular mechanism of NSP5 hyperphosphorylation during infection and its involvement in the assembly and maturation of replication-competent viroplasms.