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J. Virol., 08 1995, 4727-4736, Vol 69, No. 8
CH Gross and S Shuman
Vaccinia virus nucleoside triphosphate phosphohydrolase II (NPH-II), a
3'-to-5' RNA helicase, displays sequence similarity to members of the DExH
family of nucleic acid-dependent nucleoside triphosphatases (NTPases). The
contributions of the conserved GxGKT and DExH motifs to enzyme activity
were assessed by alanine scanning mutagenesis. Histidine-tagged versions of
NPH-II were expressed in vaccinia virus- infected BSC40 cells and purified
by nickel affinity and conventional fractionation steps. Wild-type
His-NPH-II was indistinguishable from native NPH-II with respect to RNA
helicase, RNA binding, and nucleic acid-stimulated NTPase activities. The
K-191-->A (K191A), D296A, and E297A mutant proteins bound RNA as well as
wild-type His-NPH-II did, but they were severely defective in NTPase and
helicase functions. The H299A mutant was active in RNA binding and NTP
hydrolysis but was defective in duplex unwinding. Whereas the NTPase of
wild-type NPH-II was stimulated > 10-fold by polynucleotide cofactors,
the NTPase of the H299A mutant was nucleic acid independent. Because the
specific NTPase activity of the H299A mutant in the absence of nucleic acid
was near that of wild-type enzyme in the presence of DNA or RNA and because
the Km for ATP was unaltered by the H299A substitution, we regard this
mutation as a "gain-of-function" mutation and suggest that the histidine
residue in the DExH box is required to couple the NTPase and helicase
activities.
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology
Mutational analysis of vaccinia virus nucleoside triphosphate phosphohydrolase II, a DExH box RNA helicase
Molecular Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, New York 10021, USA.
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