%0 Journal Article %A Duan, Zhiqiang %A Li, Juan %A Zhu, Jie %A Chen, Jian %A Xu, Haixu %A Wang, Yuyang %A Liu, Huimou %A Hu, Shunlin %A Liu, Xiufan %T A single amino acid mutation, R42A, in the Newcastle disease virus matrix protein abrogates its nuclear localization and attenuates viral replication and pathogenicity %D 2014 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 95 %N 5 %P 1067-1073 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.062992-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X The Newcastle disease virus (NDV) matrix (M) protein is a highly basic and nucleocytoplasmic shuttling viral protein. Previous study has demonstrated that the N-terminal 100 aa of NDV M protein are somewhat acidic overall, but the remainder of the polypeptide is strongly basic. In this study, we investigated the role of the N-terminal basic residues in the subcellular localization of M protein and in the replication and pathogenicity of NDV. We found that mutation of the basic residue arginine (R) to alanine (A) at position 42 disrupted M’s nuclear localization. Moreover, a recombinant virus with R42A mutation in the M protein reduced viral replication in DF-1 cells and attenuated the virulence and pathogenicity of the virus in chickens. This is the first report to show that a basic residue mutation in the NDV M protein abrogates its nuclear localization and attenuates viral replication and pathogenicity. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.062992-0