Segmented negative strand RNA virus nucleoprotein structure

Juan Reguera; Stephen Cusack; Daniel Kolakofsky

doi:10.1016/j.coviro.2014.01.003

Segmented negative strand RNA virus nucleoprotein structure

Curr Opin Virol. 2014 Apr:5:7-15. doi: 10.1016/j.coviro.2014.01.003. Epub 2014 Jan 30.

Authors

Juan Reguera¹, Stephen Cusack¹, Daniel Kolakofsky²

Affiliations

¹ European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Grenoble Outstation and UJF-EMBL-CNRS International Unit of Virus Host-Cell Interactions, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP181, Grenoble Cedex 9 38042, France.
² Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva School of Medicine, CMU, 1 rue Michel-Servet, Geneva 1211, Switzerland. Electronic address: kolakofsky@yahoo.com.

PMID: 24486721
DOI: 10.1016/j.coviro.2014.01.003

Abstract

Negative strand RNA virus (NSV) genomes are never free, but always found assembled with multiple copies of their nucleoprotein, as RNPs. A flurry of papers describing the X-ray crystal structures of several segmented NSV nucleoproteins have recently appeared. The most significant feature of these various structures is that the arms that are used to oligomerize the nucleoproteins on their genome RNAs are highly flexible, permitting these RNPs to assume virtually unlimited geometries. The structural flexibility of segmented NSV RNPs is undoubtedly important in all aspects of their biology, including genome replication and circularization, and the selection of one copy of each segment for packaging into virus particles.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Genome, Viral
Models, Molecular
Nucleoproteins / chemistry*
Nucleoproteins / genetics
Nucleoproteins / metabolism
RNA Viruses / chemistry
RNA Viruses / genetics
RNA Viruses / metabolism*
RNA, Viral / chemistry*
RNA, Viral / genetics
RNA, Viral / metabolism

Substances

Nucleoproteins
RNA, Viral