1 The PSAP motif within the ORF3 protein of an avian strain of the hepatitis E 1 virus is not critical for viral infectivity in vivo but plays a role in virus release 2 3 Scott P. Kenney, R.S. Pudupakam, Yao-Wei Huang, F. William Pierson, Tanya LeRoith, 4 and Xiang-Jin Meng * 5 6 Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences and 7 Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State 8 University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia 9 10 Running title: Role of PxxP motif in HEV infectivity and release 11 12 * Corresponding author. Mailing address: 13 X.J. Meng, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Virology 14 Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology 15 Virginia Tech 16 CRC-Integrated Life Sciences Building (0913) 17 1981 Kraft Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0913 18 Phone: (540) 231-6912; Fax: (540) 231-3414; E-mail: xjmeng@vt.edu 19 20 Words in Abstract: 246 21 Word Count: 3,967 22 23 Copyright © 2012, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.06711-11 JVI Accepts, published online ahead of print on 21 March 2012 on November 13, 2017 by guest http://jvi.asm.org/ Downloaded from