title: Intrinsic disorder and oligomerization of the hepatitis delta virus antigen.
abstract: The 195 amino acid basic protein (δAg) of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is essential for replication of the HDV RNA genome. Numerous properties have been mapped to full-length δAg and attempts made to link these to secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures. Here, for the full-size δAg, extensive intrinsic disorder was predicted using PONDR-FIT, a meta-predictor of intrinsic disorder, and evidenced by circular dichroism measurements. Most δAg amino acids are in disordered configurations with no more than 30% adopting an α-helical structure. In addition, dynamic light scattering studies indicated that purified δAg assembled into structures of as large as dodecamers. Cross-linking followed by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed hexamers to octamers for this purified δAg and at least this size for δAg found in virus-like particles. Oligomers of purified δAg were resistant to elevated NaCl and urea concentrations, and bound without specificity to RNA and single- and double-stranded DNAs.
authors.affiliation: Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 19111, USA. carolinamantero@gmail.com
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Roder
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D003698:Hepatitis Delta Virus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D035923:Hepatitis delta Antigens / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D035923:Hepatitis delta Antigens; D012367:RNA, Viral