pUL36 Deubiquitinase Activity Augments Both the Initiation and the Progression of Lytic Herpes Simplex Virus Infection in IFN-Primed Cells

The evolutionarily conserved, structural HSV-1 tegument protein pUL36 is essential for both virus entry and assembly. While its N-terminal deubiquitinase (DUB) activity is dispensable for infection in cell culture, it is required for efficient virus spread in vivo, as it acts as a potent viral immune evasin. Interferon (IFN) induces the expression of hundreds of antiviral factors, including many ubiquitin modulators, which HSV-1 needs to neutralize to efficiently initiate a productive infection. Herein, we discover two functions of the conserved pUL36 DUB during lytic replication in cell culture in an understudied but equally important scenario of HSV-1 infection in IFN-treated cells. Our data indicate that the pUL36 DUB contributes to overcoming the IFN-mediated suppression of productive infection in both the early and late phases of HSV-1 infection. We show that incoming tegument-derived pUL36 DUB activity contributes to the IFN resistance of HSV-1 in IFN-primed cells to efficiently initiate lytic virus replication. Subsequently, the de novo expressed DUB augmented the efficiency of virus replication and increased the output of infectious virus. Notably, the DUB defect was only apparent when IFN was applied prior to infection. Our data indicate that IFN-induced defense mechanisms exist and that they work to both neutralize infectivity early on and slow the progression of HSV-1 replication in the late stages of infection. Also, our data indicate that pUL36 DUB activity contributes to the disarming of these host responses. IMPORTANCE HSV-1 is a ubiquitous human pathogen that is responsible for common cold sores and may also cause life-threatening disease. pUL36 is an essential, conserved herpesvirus protein with N-terminal deubiquitinating (DUB) activity. The DUB is dispensable for HSV-1 replication in cell culture but represents an important viral immune evasin in vivo. IFN plays a pivotal role in HSV-1 infection and suppresses viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we show that DUB activity contributes to overcoming IFN-induced cellular resistance in order to more efficiently initiate lytic replication and produce infectious virions. As such, DUB activity in the incoming virions increases their infectivity, while the de novo synthesized DUB augments productive infection. Thus, the HSV-1 DUB antagonizes the activity of IFN-inducible effector proteins to facilitate productive infection at multiple levels. Our findings underscore the importance of using more challenging cell culture systems to fully understand virus protein functions.