RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Structure of SARS-CoV-2 ORF8, a rapidly evolving coronavirus protein implicated in immune evasion
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.08.27.270637
DO 10.1101/2020.08.27.270637
A1 Thomas G. Flower
A1 Cosmo Z. Buffalo
A1 Richard M. Hooy
A1 Marc Allaire
A1 Xuefeng Ren
A1 James H. Hurley
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/27/2020.08.27.270637.abstract
AB The molecular basis for the severity and rapid spread of the COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is largely unknown. ORF8 is a rapidly evolving accessory protein that has been proposed to interfere with immune responses. The crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 was determined at 2.04 Å resolution by x-ray crystallography. The structure reveals a ~60 residue core similar to SARS-CoV ORF7a with the addition of two dimerization interfaces unique to SARS-CoV-2 ORF8. A covalent disulfide-linked dimer is formed through an N-terminal sequence specific to SARS-CoV-2, while a separate non-covalent interface is formed by another SARS-CoV-2-specific sequence, 73YIDI76. Together the presence of these interfaces shows how SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 can form unique large-scale assemblies not possible for SARS-CoV, potentially mediating unique immune suppression and evasion activities.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.