title: Fossil record of an archaeal HK97-like provirus.
abstract: One of the outstanding questions in biology today is the origin of viruses. We have discovered a protein in the hyperthermophile Sulfolobus solfataricus while following proteome regulation during viral infection that led to the discovery of a fossil provirus. Characterization of the wild type and recombinant protein revealed that it assembled into virus-like particles with a diameter of ~32nm. Sequence and structural analyses showed that the likely proviral capsid protein, Sso2749, is homologous to a protein from Pyrococcus furiosus that forms virus-like particles using the HK-97 major capsid protein fold. The SsP2-provirus appears mosaic and contains proteins with similarity to, among others, eukaryotic herpesviruses and tailed dsDNA bacteriophage families, reinforcing the hypothesis of a common ancestral gene pool across all three domains of life. This is the first description of the HK-97 fold in a crenarchaeal virus and the first direct genomic connection of linocin-like protein cages to a virus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, 126 Chemistry Biochemistry Bldg., Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heinemann
authors.forename: Walid S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Maaty
authors.forename: George H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Gauss
authors.forename: Narahari
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akkaladevi
authors.forename: Susan K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Brumfield
authors.forename: Vamseedhar
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rayaprolu
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: C Martin
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bothner
mesh_terms: D019843:Archaeal Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D023641:Archaeal Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D020027:Pyrococcus furiosus / Q000235:genetics; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D048229:Sulfolobus solfataricus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D022701:Virosomes / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D019843:Archaeal Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D022701:Virosomes