title: Hydrophobic segment of dengue virus C protein. Interaction with model membranes.
abstract: Dengue virus (DENV) C protein is essential for viral assembly. DENV C protein associates with intracellular membranes through a conserved hydrophobic domain and accumulates around endoplasmic reticulum-derived lipid droplets which could provide a platform for capsid formation during assembly. In a previous work we described a region in DENV C protein which induced a nearly complete membrane rupture of several membrane model systems, which was coincident with the theoretically predicted highly hydrophobic region of the protein. In this work we have carried out a study of the binding to and interaction with model biomembranes of a peptide corresponding to this DENV C region, DENV2C6. We show that DENV2C6 partitions into phospholipid membranes, is capable of rupturing membranes even at very low peptide-to-lipid ratios and its membrane-activity is modulated by lipid composition. These results identify an important region in the DENV C protein which might be directly implicated in the DENV life cycle through the modulation of membrane structure.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche-Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Henrique
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nemésio
authors.forename: M Francisca
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Palomares-Jerez
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Villalaín
mesh_terms: D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008956:Models, Chemical; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019065:Virus Assembly / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D014764:Viral Proteins