Publication Date:
2009-12-08
Description:
The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important human pathogen, yet neither a vaccine nor effective therapies are available to treat infection. To help elucidate the replication mechanism of this RNA virus, we determined the three-dimensional (3D) crystal structure at 3.3 A resolution of a decameric, annular ribonucleoprotein complex of the RSV nucleoprotein (N) bound to RNA. This complex mimics one turn of the viral helical nucleocapsid complex, which serves as template for viral RNA synthesis. The RNA wraps around the protein ring, with seven nucleotides contacting each N subunit, alternating rows of four and three stacked bases that are exposed and buried within a protein groove, respectively. Combined with electron microscopy data, this structure provides a detailed model for the RSV nucleocapsid, in which the bases are accessible for readout by the viral polymerase. Furthermore, the nucleoprotein structure highlights possible key sites for drug targeting.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tawar, Rajiv G -- Duquerroy, Stephane -- Vonrhein, Clemens -- Varela, Paloma F -- Damier-Piolle, Laurence -- Castagne, Nathalie -- MacLellan, Kirsty -- Bedouelle, Hugues -- Bricogne, Gerard -- Bhella, David -- Eleouet, Jean-Francois -- Rey, Felix A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Nov 27;326(5957):1279-83. doi: 10.1126/science.1177634.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institut Pasteur, Unite de Virologie Structurale, Departement de Virologie and CNRS Unite de Recherche Associee (URA) 3015, 25 Rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19965480" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Binding Sites
;
Cryoelectron Microscopy
;
Crystallography, X-Ray
;
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
;
Models, Molecular
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Nucleic Acid Conformation
;
Nucleocapsid Proteins/*chemistry/metabolism
;
Protein Structure, Secondary
;
Protein Structure, Tertiary
;
Protein Subunits/chemistry/metabolism
;
RNA, Viral/*chemistry/metabolism
;
Respiratory Syncytial Viruses/*chemistry/metabolism
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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