Nonstructural Protein NP1 of Human Bocavirus 1 Plays a Critical Role in the Expression of Viral Capsid Proteins

A novel chimeric parvoviral vector, rAAV2/HBoV1, in which the recombinant adeno-associated virus 2 (rAAV2) genome is pseudopackaged by the human bocavirus 1 (HBoV1) capsid, has been shown to be highly efficient in gene delivery to human airway epithelia (Z. Yan et al., Mol Ther 21:2181-2194, 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mt.2013.92). In this vector production system, we used an HBoV1 packaging plasmid, pHBoV1NSCap, that harbors HBoV1 nonstructural protein (NS) and capsid protein (Cap) genes. In order to simplify this packaging plasmid, we investigated the involvement of the HBoV1 NS proteins in capsid protein expression. We found that NP1, a small NS protein encoded by the middle open reading frame, is required for the expression of the viral capsid proteins (VP1, VP2, and VP3). We also found that the other NS proteins (NS1, NS2, NS3, and NS4) are not required for the expression of VP proteins. We performed systematic analyses of the HBoV1 mRNAs transcribed from the pHBoV1NSCap packaging plasmid and its derivatives in HEK 293 cells. Mechanistically, we found that NP1 is required for both the splicing and the read-through of the proximal polyadenylation site of the HBoV1 precursor mRNA, essential functions for the maturation of capsid protein-encoding mRNA. Thus, our study provides a unique example of how a small viral nonstructural protein facilitates the multifaceted regulation of capsid gene expression.