title: Involvement of the terminus of grouper betanodavirus capsid protein in virus-like particle assembly.
abstract: Dragon grouper, Epinephelus lanceolatus, nervous necrosis virus (DGNNV) consists of 180 copies of capsid protein that encapsulates a bipartite genome of single-stranded (+)RNAs. Expressing the open reading frame (ORF) of RNA2 in Escherichia coli forms virus-like particles (VLPs) that resembles native virus. Deleting N- and C-termini revealed different impacts on VLP formation. Deletion of 35 or 52 residues at the N-terminus completely ruined the VLP assembly, presumably due to removal of positively charged residues for binding RNAs. When deletions were restricted to 4, 16, or 25 N-terminal residues, the assembly of VLPs remained. The ability of VLP formation diminished when 4 to 11 C-terminal residues were deleted. The termini that can be deleted without seriously destructing the VLPs are 25 and 3 residues at N- and C-termini, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Resources, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005399:Fishes / Q000821:virology; D015870:Gene Expression; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D030381:Nodaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017384:Sequence Deletion / Q000235:genetics; D019065:Virus Assembly
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D012367:RNA, Viral