title: The structure of bovine viral diarrhea virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and its amino-terminal domain.
abstract: Viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRp) differ from DNA-dependent RNA polymerases, DNA-dependent DNA polymerases, and reverse transcriptases in that RdRps contain "fingertips" consisting of several polypeptide strands in the fingers domain interacting with the thumb domain. The crystal structure of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) RdRp containing an Asn438 duplication shows that the "N-terminal domain," which occurs only in pestiviruses such as BVDV, interacts with the polymerase component of the same polypeptide chain. This contrasts with the domain swapping observed in the previously determined structure of the BVDV NADL strain RdRp. By comparison with the NADL structure and through the use of biochemical data, it is possible that the N-terminal domain, in conjunction with the fingertips, is required to bind and assist the translocation of the RNA template. The partial disorder of the loop containing the additional Asn438 residue may explain the low replication rate of the recombinant compared with the wild-type virus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 915 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Kyung H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gallei
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Becher
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Rossmann
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D001908:Diarrhea Viruses, Bovine Viral / Q000201:enzymology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry*; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase