title: GxxxG motif of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike glycoprotein transmembrane domain is not involved in trimerization and is not important for entry.
abstract: Recently, a paper was published in which it was proposed that the GxxxG motif of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus spike (S) protein transmembrane domain plays a vital role in oligomerization of the protein (E. Arbely, Z. Granot, I. Kass, J. Orly, and I. T. Arkin, Biochemistry 45:11349-11356, 2006). Here, we show that the GxxxG motif is not involved in SARS S oligomerization by trimerization analysis of S GxxxG mutant proteins. In addition, the capability of S to mediate entry of SARS S-pseudotyped particles overall was affected moderately in the mutant proteins, also arguing for a nonvital role for the GxxxG motif in SARS coronavirus entry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center, E4-P, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands. j.corver@lumc.nl
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Corver
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Broer
authors.forename: Puck
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Kasteren
authors.forename: Willy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Spaan
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D053586:Virus Internalization
chemical_list: D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C578557:spike glycoprotein, SARS-CoV; C578553:spike protein, mouse hepatitis virus