Biomaterial Database

Structural basis for dimerization and RNA binding of avian infectious bronchitis virus nsp9. 2017

Tingting Hu, and Cheng Chen, and Huiyan Li, and Yanshu Dou, and Ming Zhou, and Deren Lu, and Qi Zong, and Yulei Li, and Cheng Yang, and Zhihui Zhong, and Namit Singh, and Honggang Hu, and Rundong Zhang, and Haitao Yang, and Dan Su

State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, Chengdu, 610041, P.R. China.

The potential for infection by coronaviruses (CoVs) has become a serious concern with the recent emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the human population. CoVs encode two large polyproteins, which are then processed into 15-16 nonstructural proteins (nsps) that make significant contributions to viral replication and transcription by assembling the RNA replicase complex. Among them, nsp9 plays an essential role in viral replication by forming a homodimer that binds single-stranded RNA. Thus, disrupting nsp9 dimerization is a potential anti-CoV therapy. However, different nsp9 dimer forms have been reported for alpha- and beta-CoVs, and no structural information is available for gamma-CoVs. Here we determined the crystal structure of nsp9 from the avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a representative gamma-CoV that affects the economy of the poultry industry because it can infect domestic fowl. IBV nsp9 forms a homodimer via interactions across a hydrophobic interface, which consists of two parallel alpha helices near the carboxy terminus of the protein. The IBV nsp9 dimer resembles that of SARS-CoV nsp9, indicating that this type of dimerization is conserved among all CoVs. This makes disruption of the dimeric interface an excellent strategy for developing anti-CoV therapies. To facilitate this effort, we characterized the roles of six conserved residues on this interface using site-directed mutagenesis and a multitude of biochemical and biophysical methods. We found that three residues are critical for nsp9 dimerization and its abitlity to bind RNA.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D001351	Infectious bronchitis virus	A species of CORONAVIRUS causing infections in chickens and possibly pheasants. Chicks up to four weeks old are the most severely affected.	Avian Infectious Bronchitis Virus,Infectious Bronchitis Virus, Avian,Infectious bronchitis viruses,bronchitis viruses, Infectious
D012367	RNA, Viral	Ribonucleic acid that makes up the genetic material of viruses.	Viral RNA
D013329	Structure-Activity Relationship	The relationship between the chemical structure of a compound and its biological or pharmacological activity. Compounds are often classed together because they have structural characteristics in common including shape, size, stereochemical arrangement, and distribution of functional groups.	Relationship, Structure-Activity,Relationships, Structure-Activity,Structure Activity Relationship,Structure-Activity Relationships
D014764	Viral Proteins	Proteins found in any species of virus.	Gene Products, Viral,Viral Gene Products,Viral Gene Proteins,Viral Protein,Protein, Viral,Proteins, Viral
D016601	RNA-Binding Proteins	Proteins that bind to RNA molecules. Included here are RIBONUCLEOPROTEINS and other proteins whose function is to bind specifically to RNA.	Double-Stranded RNA-Binding Protein,Double-Stranded RNA-Binding Proteins,ds RNA-Binding Protein,RNA-Binding Protein,ds RNA-Binding Proteins,Double Stranded RNA Binding Protein,Double Stranded RNA Binding Proteins,Protein, Double-Stranded RNA-Binding,Protein, ds RNA-Binding,RNA Binding Protein,RNA Binding Proteins,RNA-Binding Protein, Double-Stranded,RNA-Binding Protein, ds,RNA-Binding Proteins, Double-Stranded,ds RNA Binding Protein
D055503	Protein Multimerization	The assembly of the QUATERNARY PROTEIN STRUCTURE of multimeric proteins (MULTIPROTEIN COMPLEXES) from their composite PROTEIN SUBUNITS.	Protein Dimerization,Protein Heteromultimerizaton,Protein Multimer Assembly,Protein Trimerization,Assembly, Protein Multimer,Dimerization, Protein,Heteromultimerizaton, Protein,Heteromultimerizatons, Protein,Multimer Assembly, Protein,Multimerization, Protein,Trimerization, Protein