Abstract
Influenza virus particles are assembled at the plasma membrane in concert with incorporation of the virus genome, but the details of its spatio-temporal regulation are not understood. Here we showed that influenza virus infection induces the assembly of pericentrosomal endocytic recycling compartment (ERC) through the activation of Rab11a GTPase and cell cycle-independent maturation of centrosome by YB-1, a multifunctional protein that is involved in mitotic division, RNA metabolism and tumorigenesis. YB-1 is recruited to the centrosome in infected cells and is required for anchoring microtubules to the centrosome. We also found that viral infection accumulates cholesterol in ERC and is dependent on YB-1. Depletion of YB-1 shows reduced cholesterol-enriched ERC and prevented budozone formation at the plasma membrane. These results suggest that cholesterol in recycling endosomes, which are emanated from ERC, may trigger the virus assembly concomitantly with the packaging of the virus genome. We propose that the virus genome is transported to the plasma membrane by cholesterol-enriched recycling endosomes through cell cycle-independent activation of the centrosome by YB-1.