Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Structure Shows that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-Unique Domain Contains a Macrodomain Fold Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • ABSTRACT The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structure of a central segment of the previously annotated severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-unique domain (SUD-M, for middle of the SARS-unique domain) in SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) nonstructural protein 3 (nsp3) has been determined. SUD-M(513-651) exhibits a macrodomain fold containing the nsp3 residues 528 to 648, and there is a flexibly extended N-terminal tail with the residues 513 to 527 and a C-terminal flexible tail of residues 649 to 651. As a follow-up to this initial result, we also solved the structure of a construct representing only the globular domain of residues 527 to 651 [SUD-M(527-651)]. NMR chemical shift perturbation experiments showed that SUD-M(527-651) binds single-stranded poly(A) and identified the contact area with this RNA on the protein surface, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays then confirmed that SUD-M has higher affinity for purine bases than for pyrimidine bases. In a further search for clues to the function, we found that SUD-M(527-651) has the closest three-dimensional structure homology with another domain of nsp3, the ADP-ribose-1"-phosphatase nsp3b, although the two proteins share only 5% sequence identity in the homologous sequence regions. SUD-M(527-651) also shows three-dimensional structure homology with several helicases and nucleoside triphosphate-binding proteins, but it does not contain the motifs of catalytic residues found in these structural homologues. The combined results from NMR screening of potential substrates and the structure-based homology studies now form a basis for more focused investigations on the role of the SARS-unique domain in viral infection.

published proceedings

  • Journal of Virology

author list (cited authors)

  • Chatterjee, A., Johnson, M. A., Serrano, P., Pedrini, B., Joseph, J. S., Neuman, B. W., ... Wuthrich, K.

citation count

  • 46

complete list of authors

  • Chatterjee, Amarnath||Johnson, Margaret A||Serrano, Pedro||Pedrini, Bill||Joseph, Jeremiah S||Neuman, Benjamin W||Saikatendu, Kumar||Buchmeier, Michael J||Kuhn, Peter||Wüthrich, Kurt

publication date

  • February 2009