title: Biochemical and biophysical analysis of heptad repeat regions from the fusion protein of Menangle virus, a newly emergent paramyxovirus.
abstract: Menangle virus is a novel paramyxovirus isolated in Australia in 1997, but its classification position has not yet been finally settled. Here by using a computational program, LearnCoil-VMF, we determined the heptad repeat (HR) regions (HR1 and HR2) of Menangle virus F protein. Subsequently the HR1 and HR2 peptides were expressed as a single chain (named 2-Helix) connected by a six amino-acid linker as a GST fusion protein with an E. coli in vitro expression system. The GST-removed purified 2-Helix protein could form a stable trimer in vitro judging by gel-filtration and chemical cross-linking. CD spectra showed that the 2-Helix protein had a high percentage of alpha-helix and was very thermo-stable. Crystals of the 2-Helix protein preparations have been obtained in many conditions with hanging-drop diffusion method. These results indicated that Menangle virus has the common features of the fusion protein for other paramyxoviruses and should adopt a similar fusion mechanism to other members. As the HR regions of Menangle virus F protein could form stable six-helix bundle coiled coil structure, they should be used as drug target for the design of fusion inhibitors, as successfully used for other parmyxoviruses. This is especially relevant to such a newly emergent virus with zoonotic potentials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Virology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: J Q
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: C W-H
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tien
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001315:Australia; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D017931:DNA Primers; D005813:Genes, Synthetic; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D020449:Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid; D018108:Respirovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins