title: Model-based structural and functional characterization of the Rice stripe tenuivirus nucleocapsid protein interacting with viral genomic RNA.
abstract: Rice stripe tenuivirus (RSV) is a filamentous, negative-strand RNA virus causing severe diseases on rice in Asian countries. The viral particle is composed predominantly of a nucleocapsid protein (NP) and genomic RNA. However, the molecular details of how the RSV NP interacts with genomic RNA during particle assembly remain largely unknown. Here, we modeled the NP-RNA complex and show that polar amino acids within a predicted groove of NP are critical for RNA binding and protecting the RNA from RNase digestion. RSV NP formed pentamers, hexamers, heptamers, and octamers. By modeling the higher-order structures, we found that oligomer formation was driven by the N-terminal amino arm of the NP. Deletion of this arm abolished oligomerization; the N-terminally truncated NP was less able to interact with RNA and protect RNA than was the wild type. These findings afford valuable new insights into molecular mechanism of RSV NPs interacting with genomic RNA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, PR China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, PR China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, PR China. Electronic address: taoxiaorong@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yijun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, PR China; State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, PR China. Electronic address: zzhou@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xueping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, PR China. Electronic address: yjzhou@jass.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaorong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tao
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019251:Nucleocapsid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012275:Oryza / Q000821:virology*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D011485:Protein Binding; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D029364:Tenuivirus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Model-based structure–function analysis; Nucleocapsid Protein; RNA-binding sites; Rice Stripe Tenuivirus