title: Structure of the equine arteritis virus nucleocapsid protein reveals a dimer-dimer arrangement.
abstract: Equine arteritis virus (EAV) is an enveloped positive-sense RNA virus belonging to the Arteriviridae family, which also includes the porcine pathogen PRRSV and is genetically and structurally related to the coronaviruses. EAV is an important equine pathogen that has caused significant economic losses to the horse-breeding industry and has been difficult to control. The EAV virion consists of a genome-containing nucleocapsid core made of nucleocapsid (N) protein surrounded by a lipid envelope containing several membrane proteins. Here, the crystal structure of the capsid-forming domain of the EAV N protein is presented at 2.0 A resolution. The dimeric N-protein structure is similar to the previously determined structure of the N protein from PRRSV, with most differences localized to the terminal helices and flexible loops. The N protein is organized as dimers of dimers in the crystal, which may reflect the arrangement of the protein in the viral nucleocapsid.
authors: Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
authors: Ashlesha
authors: A
authors: Deshpande
authors: Sifang
authors: S
authors: Wang
authors: Martin A
authors: MA
authors: Walsh
authors: Terje
authors: T
authors: Dokland
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019281:Dimerization; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014771:Virion / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: C411106:EAV nucleocapsid protein, Equine arteritis virus; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins