Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus ORF21 Enhances the Phosphorylation of MEK and the Infectivity of Progeny Virus

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), also known as human herpesvirus-8, is the causative agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma, Castleman’s disease, and primary effusion lymphoma. Although the functions of the viral thymidine kinases (vTK) of herpes simplex virus-1/2 are well understood, that of KSHV ORF21 (an ortholog of vTK) is largely unknown. Here, we investigated the role of ORF21 in lytic replication and infection by generating two ORF21-mutated KSHV BAC clones: ORF21-kinase activity deficient KSHV (21KD) and stop codon-induced ORF21-deleted KSHV (21del). The results showed that both ORF21 mutations did not affect viral genome replication, lytic gene transcription, or the production of viral genome-encapsidated particles. The ORF21 molecule-dependent function, other than the kinase function of ORF21, was involved in the infectivity of the progeny virus. ORF21 was expressed 36 h after the induction of lytic replication, and endogenously expressed ORF21 was localized in the whole cytoplasm. Moreover, ORF21 upregulated the MEK phosphorylation and anchorage-independent cell growth. The inhibition of MEK signaling by U0126 in recipient target cells suppressed the number of progeny virus-infected cells. These suggest that ORF21 transmitted as a tegument protein in the progeny virus enhances the new infection through MEK up-regulation in the recipient cell. Our findings indicate that ORF21 plays key roles in the infection of KSHV through the manipulation of the cellular function.