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Journal of Virology, June 2009, p. 5525-5534, Vol. 83, No. 11
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02289-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Single-Amino-Acid Alterations in a Highly Conserved Central Region of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus N Protein Differentially Affect the Viral Nucleocapsid Template Functions

Debasis Nayak,¹ Debasis Panda,¹ Subash C. Das,^1, Ming Luo,² and Asit K. Pattnaik^1*

Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska—Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583-0900,¹ Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294²

Received 1 November 2008/ Accepted 9 March 2009

The nucleocapsid protein (N) of vesicular stomatitis virus and other rhabdoviruses plays a central role in the assembly and template functions of the viral N-RNA complex. The crystal structure of the viral N-RNA complex suggests that the central region of the N protein interacts with the viral RNA. Sequence alignment of rhabdovirus N proteins revealed several highly conserved regions, one of which spanned residues 282 to 291 (GLSSKSPYSS) in the central region of the molecule. Alanine-scanning mutagenesis of this region suggested that replacement of the tyrosine residue at position 289 (Y289) with alanine resulted in an N-RNA template that is nonfunctional in viral genome replication and transcription. To establish the molecular basis of this defect, our further studies revealed that the Y289A mutant maintained its interaction with other N protein molecules but that its interactions with the P protein or with the viral RNA were defective. Replacement of Y289 with other aromatic, polar, or large amino acids indicated that the hydrophobic and aromatic nature of this position in the N protein is functionally important and that a larger aromatic residue is less favorable. Interestingly, we have observed that several single-amino-acid substitutions in this highly conserved region of the molecule rendered the nucleocapsid template nonfunctional in transcription without adversely affecting the replication functions. These results suggest that the structure of the N protein and the resulting N-RNA complex, in part, regulate the viral template functions in transcription and replication.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: 109 Morrison Life Science Research Center, 4240 Fair Street, East Campus, University of Nebraska—Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0900. Phone: (402) 472-1067. Fax: (402) 472-3323. E-mail: apattnaik2{at}unl.edu

Published ahead of print on 25 March 2009.

Present Address: Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI 53706.

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Journal of Virology, June 2009, p. 5525-5534, Vol. 83, No. 11
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02289-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

This article has been cited by other articles:

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• Eifan, S. A., Elliott, R. M. (2009). Mutational Analysis of the Bunyamwera Orthobunyavirus Nucleocapsid Protein Gene. J. Virol. 83: 11307-11317 [Abstract] [Full Text]