Potyvirus virion structure shows conserved protein fold and RNA binding site in ssRNA viruses
The near atomic cryoEM structure of a flexible filamentous plant virus (left) has revealed a conserved fold for nucleoproteins of ssRNA viruses of different morphologies, including enveloped animal viruses (right).
Zamora M, Mendez-Lopez E, Agirrezabala X, Cuesta R, Lavin JL, Sanchez-Pina MA, Aranda MA, Valle M.
Sci Adv 2017 Sep; 3: eaao2182.
Potyviruses constitute the second largest genus of plant viruses and cause important economic losses in a large variety of crops; however, the atomic structure of their particles remains unknown. Infective potyvirus virions are long flexuous filaments where coat protein (CP) subunits assemble in helical mode bound to a monopartite positive-sense single-stranded RNA [(+)ssRNA] genome. We present the cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) structure of the potyvirus watermelon mosaic virus at a resolution of 4.0 A. The atomic model shows a conserved fold for the CPs of flexible filamentous plant viruses, including a universally conserved RNA binding pocket, which is a potential target for antiviral compounds. This conserved fold of the CP is widely distributed in eukaryotic viruses and is also shared by nucleoproteins of enveloped viruses with segmented (-)ssRNA (negative-sense ssRNA) genomes, including influenza viruses.
PubMed: 28948231. Doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao2182. free PMC article
