title: Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the heptad-repeat complex of SARS coronavirus spike protein.
abstract: The aetiological agent of an emergent outbreak of atypical pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is a positive-stranded RNA virus (SARS-CoV) belonging to the Coronaviridae family with a genome that differs substantially from those of other known coronaviruses. Highly conserved heptad-repeat (HR1 and HR2) regions in class I viral fusion proteins, including spike protein from SARS coronavirus, interact with each other to form a six-helix bundle, which is called a fusion core. The crystal structure of the fusion core is expected to greatly facilitate drug design. Crystals of the fusion core of SARS-CoV spike protein have been grown at 291 K using PEG 4000 as precipitant. The diffraction pattern of the crystal extends to 2.8 A resolution at 100 K in-house. The crystals have unit-cell parameters a = 121.2, b = 66.3, c = 70.0 A, alpha = gamma = 90, beta = 107.4 degrees and belong to space group C2. Assuming the presence of six molecules per asymmetric unit, the solvent content is estimated to be about 28%.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Structural Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yanhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: George F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Zihe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008561:Membrane Fusion; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; D013696:Temperature; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins; C578557:spike glycoprotein, SARS-CoV