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Journal of Virology, September 2005, p. 11974-11980, Vol. 79, No. 18
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.79.18.11974-11980.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The N Terminus of Rift Valley Fever Virus Nucleoprotein Is Essential for Dimerization

Nicolas Le May, Nicolas Gauliard, Agnès Billecocq, and Michèle Bouloy*

Unité de Génétique Moléculaire des Bunyaviridés, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Received 5 April 2005/ Accepted 9 June 2005

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a Phlebovirus in the Bunyaviridae family. The nucleoprotein N is the most abundant component of the virion; numerous copies of N associate with the viral RNA genome and form pseudohelicoidal ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) circularized by a panhandle structure formed by the base-paired RNA sequences at the 3' and 5' termini. These structures play a central role in transcription and replication. We investigated the intermolecular interactions of the RVFV N protein and found that after chemical cross-linking treatment, the nucleoprotein from purified RNPs migrates mainly as dimers. The N-N interaction was studied using the yeast two-hybrid system, the GST pull-down method, and mutational analysis. We demonstrated that the N terminus from residue 1 to 71, and particularly Tyr 4 and Phe 11, which are conserved among phlebovirus N sequences, are involved in the interaction. The C-terminal region did not seem to be essential for the N-N interaction. Moreover, we showed that NTOS, the N protein of the related Toscana phlebovirus, interacts with itself and forms heterodimers with NRVF, suggesting that the dimeric form of N may be a conserved feature in phlebovirus RNPs.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut Pasteur, Unité de Génétique Moléculaire des Bunyaviridés, 25 rue du Docteur Roux 75015, Paris, France. Phone: 33 1 40 61 31 57. Fax: 33 1 40 61 31 51. E-mail: mbouloy{at}pasteur.fr.

Journal of Virology, September 2005, p. 11974-11980, Vol. 79, No. 18
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.79.18.11974-11980.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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