title: Crystal structure of Junin virus nucleoprotein.
abstract: Junin virus (JUNV) has been identified as the aetiological agent of Argentine haemorrhagic fever (AHF), which is a serious public health problem with approximately 5 million people at risk. It is treated as a potential bioterrorism agent because of its rapid transmission by aerosols. JUNV is a negative-sense ssRNA virus that belongs to the genus Arenavirus within the family Arenaviridae, and its genomic RNA contains two segments encoding four proteins. Among these, the nucleoprotein (NP) has essential roles in viral RNA synthesis and immune suppression, but the molecular mechanisms of its actions are only partially understood. Here, we determined a 2.2 Å crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of JUNV NP. This structure showed high similarity to the Lassa fever virus (LASV) NP C-terminal domain. However, both the structure and function of JUNV NP showed differences compared with LASV NP. This study extends our structural insight into the negative-sense ssRNA virus NPs.
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.|College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.|State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Yinjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.|College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Le
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.|College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Shishang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.|College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Wenming
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.|College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.|State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Huo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.|College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.|State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Zihe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.|College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.|State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral / Q000502:physiology; D018051:Junin virus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009698:Nucleoproteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D009698:Nucleoproteins