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Journal of Virology, May 2009, p. 4338-4344, Vol. 83, No. 9
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.02574-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Moshe Dessau,1
Kaury Kucera,1
Karen Anthony,2
Michel Ledizet,2 and
Yorgo Modis1*
Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, The Bass Center for Structural Biology, Yale University, 266 Whitney Ave., New Haven, Connecticut 06520,1 L2 Diagnostics, 300 George St., New Haven, Connecticut 065112
Received 13 December 2008/ Accepted 11 February 2009
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-helical hairpins anchor E and M in the lipid membrane. E binds a receptor on the host cell surface during infection. Receptor binding directs the virion to the endocytic pathway. E responds to the reduced pH of the endosome with a large conformational rearrangement (17). This rearrangement delivers the energy required to bend the host cell membrane toward the viral membrane, inducing the two membranes to fuse (17). The fusogenic conformational rearrangement is a critical step in viral entry, as it delivers the viral genome into the cytoplasm. Crystal structures of the E protein ectodomains from dengue virus type 2 (DEN-2) and from tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus have been determined both before and after their fusogenic conformational rearrangements (3, 16, 17, 22, 26). The structures of DEN-3 virus E and of West Nile virus E in the prefusion conformation have also been determined (8, 18, 19). These structures provide us with a detailed molecular picture of the fusion mechanism of flaviviruses (15). First, E inserts a hydrophobic anchor, the so-called fusion loop, into the outer bilayer leaflet of the host cell membrane. Second, E folds back on itself, directing its C-terminal transmembrane anchor toward the fusion loop. This fold-back forces the host cell membrane (held by the fusion loop) and the viral membrane (held by the C-terminal transmembrane anchor) against each other, resulting in fusion of the two membranes. Here we report the crystal structure of a soluble fragment of the E protein (sE) from DEN-1 containing residues 1 to 400, that is, all but the last 50 residues of the ectodomain (Fig. 1). The protein is in the postfusion conformation even though it was never exposed to a lipid membrane or detergent.
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FIG. 1. Structure of the DEN-1 sE trimer. (A) Domain I is in red, domain II is in yellow, and domain III is in blue. The fusion loop (FL) is in orange. A 53-residue "stem" (cyan) links the ectodomain to a two-helix C-terminal transmembrane anchor (TM; white hatching). (B to D) DEN-1 sE trimer, colored as in panel A, shown in a ribbon diagram (B) and as surface representations (C and D). The overall fold resembles that of DEN-2 sE (17). The hydrophobic region of the outer leaflet of the fused viral-endosomal membrane is represented by a green rectangle, with representative lipids shown as space fillers. The presumed location of the stem region is shown by a dashed line (a thicker line indicates segments that are -helical in the mature virus) (25). (B and C) Shown in an all-atom representation are the six disulfide bonds (green), hydrophobic residues in the fusion loop (orange), and Asn67 (yellow), which is glycosylated. A chloride ion (black sphere) binds on the threefold axis near the exposed fusion loops.
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TABLE 1. Data collection and refinement statistics
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Protein Data Bank accession number. The atomic coordinates and structure factors of the DEN-1 sE structure are available from the Protein Data Bank (entry 3G7T.pdb).
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FIG. 2. Comparison of the DEN-1 sE and DEN-2 sE structures. (A) Structure of a monomer of DEN-2 sE in the postfusion conformation (in gray) (17) superimposed on a DEN-1 sE monomer (colored as in Fig. 1), using domain I as the reference. The C terminus of DEN-1 sE (labeled C1) extends 10 Å closer to the fusion loop (FL) than the C terminus of DEN-2 sE (C2). The cluster of polar residues at the interface between domains I and III is marked with an asterisk. The direction of the view labeled B,C is shown with an arrow. N, N terminus. (B) Polar cluster at the domain I-domain III interface of DEN-1. His-27, His-282, His-317, and Glu-368 form a tight cluster at the interface between domains I and III. His-317 is required for "sensing" by E with the reduced pH of the endosome (5). In DEN-2 (C) and TBE virus (D), the homologous residues do not form any interdomain contacts. However, His-317/-323 and Glu-368/-373 still form an intradomain salt bridge. (E) Stereoscopic view of the electron density near the polar cluster at the domain I-domain III interface of DEN-1 sE. A 2Fo-Fc Fourier omit map calculated at a 25- to 3.5-Å resolution is shown in pink contoured at 1.5 . The polar cluster residues and the side chain atoms of Thr-319 were omitted from the coordinate set for map calculation (omitted atoms are shown in yellow). The map unambiguously shows the positions of His-27, His-317, Glu-368, and His-282 at the left, right, top, and bottom of the cluster, respectively. The map was "sharpened" by –80 Å2 (see Materials and Methods). The view is rotated 30° around the horizontal axis relative to the view in B.
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Tight cluster of polar residues at the domain I-domain III interface. While the overall flavivirus architecture is conserved in the DEN-1 sE structure, there are significant differences between the postfusion structures of DEN-1 and DEN-2 sE at the domain I-domain III interface, where four polar residues—His-27, His-282, His-317, and Glu-368—form a tight cluster that nucleates the interdomain interface in DEN-1 sE (Fig. 2B). Each residue in the cluster is within hydrogen bonding distance of each of the other three residues in the cluster. Since two of the residues are in domain I and the other two are in domain III, the cluster stabilizes the domain I-domain III interface in the postfusion trimer. His-282, His-317, and Glu-368 are conserved in flaviviruses, including dengue, TBE, yellow fever, West Nile, and Japanese encephalitis viruses. His-27 is conserved in dengue virus but not in other flaviviruses. Despite this high degree of sequence conservation, however, the cluster is not observed in the DEN-2 or TBE virus postfusion E structures (Fig. 2C and D). The presence of the cluster is likely due to the different environments used to express and crystallize the DEN-1 trimer. Specifically, unlike postfusion DEN-2 sE and TBE virus sE, postfusion DEN-1 sE was crystallized at a pH that is typical of early endosomes, pH 6.5. His-317 is a critical part of the "pH sensor" that triggers the fusogenic conformational change in response to the reduced pH of the endosome. Indeed, protonation of His-317 at low pH destabilizes the prefusion domain I-domain III interface and stabilizes the postfusion E trimer (5). The basis for this trimer stabilization is unclear from previous studies. Our structure provides a possible explanation, at least for DEN-1, since His-317 in domain III forms contacts with both His-27 and His-282 in domain I, thereby stabilizing the postfusion domain I-domain III interface (Fig. 2B). The presence of an interdomain contact between His-317 and His-282 in the postfusion trimer may also explain the reduced thermal stability and less efficient trimer formation of a TBE virus E mutant in which the TBE virus His-282 homolog, His-287, and one other histidine have been mutated (5).
Because the polar cluster contains only one negative charge, on Glu-368, protonation of all three histidine side chains in the cluster to their positively charged forms would be electrostatically unfavorable. Based on our structure, His-282 is unlikely to be protonated because of its proximity to the positively charged side chain of Arg-188. His-27 is likely to be protonated because of contacts with both the main-chain carbonyl oxygen and the negatively charged Glu-368 side chain. For His-317, our structure is consistent with either the protonated state or the unprotonated state. The proposed pH-sensing role of His-317 suggests a protonated state at endosomal pH (5). We note that the pH of the crystallization solvent of DEN-1 sE, pH 6.5, is close to the pKa of the histidine side chain.
Distinct shape of the fusion loop membrane anchor. In the first stage of the fusogenic conformational change, the fusion loop becomes exposed on the viral surface. Trimer contacts then begin to form throughout the E protein, and the fusion loop inserts into the outer lipid leaflet of the host cell endosomal membrane (17). Despite its limited penetration into the endosomal membrane, the fusion loop is anchored sufficiently firmly in the membrane to withstand the physical forces created during the second half of the fusogenic conformational change, when contacts created as E trimerizes bend the viral and endosomal membranes toward one another to the point of membrane fusion (17). The backbone conformations of the fusion loops in the DEN-1 and DEN-2 sE postfusion structures are similar. As in DEN-2 sE, there can be no lipid micelle covering the fusion loop in DEN-1 sE, as this region is involved in crystal contacts with residues in domain III of a symmetry-related molecule. However, in DEN-1 sE, the side chain of Phe-108 adopts a different conformation, forming additional trimer contacts and filling the bowl-shaped concavity observed in DEN-2 sE at the tip of the trimer. As a result, the apex of the DEN-1 sE trimer has the flat shape of a mesa rather than of a concave bowl (Fig. 3). This difference is likely due to the different environments used to crystallize the DEN-1 and DEN-2 sE trimers. Indeed, unlike other postfusion sE structures, DEN-1 sE was crystallized in the absence of detergent. However, long-range effects of neighboring unconserved regions could also contribute to the difference. If the conformation of the DEN-1 sE fusion loop is maintained during membrane insertion, its bulkier shape may displace a larger number of lipid molecules upon insertion into the membrane. This could result in a more pronounced nipple-like protrusion with positive membrane curvature upon fusion loop insertion into the membrane, possibly enhancing fusion activity (10).
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FIG. 3. Structure of the fusion loop region of the sE trimer. Closeup of the aromatic anchor formed by Trp-101 and Phe-108 in the fusion loops (orange) of DEN-1 sE (A) and DEN-2 sE (B). The chloride ion (black) is shifted by 1.9 Å along the threefold axis in DEN-1 sE relative to its position in DEN-2 sE. The three clustered fusion loops form an apex that is mesa shaped in DEN-1 sE (C and E) and bowl shaped in DEN-2 sE (D and F). The view in panels E and F is down the threefold axis and rotated 90° relative to the views of the other panels.
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FIG. 4. Distribution of conserved and variable residues on the surface of mature DEN-1 virus. (A) Backbone trace of the atomic model of the DEN-1 outer protein shell based on the 9.5-Å-resolution electron microscopy reconstruction of DEN-2 (25). Two E subunits are outlined in gray. (B) Seventy-five residues are strictly conserved in the West Nile, TBE, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, and dengue viruses. Few of these residues are visible on the viral surface (shown as space fillers, with the same coloring scheme as in previous figures). The largest surface-exposed cluster (labeled with a black arrow) consists of 9 residues in the region of the fusion loop. (C) Same view as in panel B, with residues shown in color only if they are unique to DEN-1. Of the 36 such DEN-1-specific residues, 7 cluster in a ridge on the central surface of domain II (yellow), 11 are distributed across the surface of domain I (red), and 8 are exposed on the surface of domain III (blue).
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Surprisingly, the most-notable differences between the postfusion DEN-1 E and DEN-2 E structures are in regions with conserved amino acid sequences, namely, in the polar cluster between domains I and III and in the fusion loop. These differences are likely due to the different environments used to crystallize the DEN-1 and DEN-2 E trimers. Long-range effects of neighboring unconserved regions may, however, also contribute to the differences. Indeed, while the fusion loop itself is strictly conserved, it is immediately flanked by less conserved surfaces (formed by residues 70 to 82 and 242 to 248). These types of structural variations may modulate the efficacy of antibody neutralization from one dengue serotype to another, providing a possible explanation for the tendency of antibodies against the fusion loop to enhance infection by noncognate serotypes (21). On a more general level, the observation that conserved sequences can adopt different structures in different dengue virus types illustrates the complexity of the E proteins as antigens and the need for structural comparisons to complement genetic sequence analysis.
We thank Rajashankar Kanagalaghatta and other staff at the Northeastern Collaborative Access Team beamlines of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), supported by award RR-15301 from the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institute of Health. We thank staff at the X25 and X29A beamlines of the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Use of the APS (under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357) and NSLS is supported by the Offices of Biological and of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Published ahead of print on 25 February 2009. ![]()
Present address: The Scripps Research Institute Florida, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter, FL 33458. ![]()
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