Viral Strategies for Intracellular Trafficking: Motors and Microtubules

To overcome barriers to diffusion, many viruses utilize the microtubule-associated molecular motor cytoplasmic dynein 1 to drive transport towards the nucleus of a target cell. Cytoplasmic dynein 1 generates movement towards the minus end of microtubules located at the microtubule organizing centre (MTOC), a structure that is typically in close proximity to the nucleus. Physiological cargoes for cytoplasmic dynein include membranous organelles, protein complexes and aggregates of misfolded protein. In this review, we discuss the study of microtubule-based translocation of viruses and raise questions about the mechanisms for association with and then dissociation from cytoplasmic dynein with a goal of understanding whether viruses are seen by the intracellular trafficking machinery as functional protein complexes or misfolded protein aggregates.