Differential contributions of tacaribe arenavirus nucleoprotein N-terminal and C-terminal residues to nucleocapsid functional activity.

ABSTRACT:

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The arenavirus nucleoprotein (NP) is the main protein component of viral nucleocapsids and is strictly required for viral genome replication mediated by the L polymerase. Homo-oligomerization of NP is presumed to play an important role in nucleocapsid assembly, albeit the underlying mechanism and the relevance of NP-NP interaction in nucleocapsid activity are still poorly understood. Here, we evaluate the contribution of the New World Tacaribe virus (TCRV) NP self-interaction to nucleocapsid functional activity. We show that alanine substitution of N-terminal residues predicted to be available for NP-NP interaction strongly affected NP self-association, as determined by coimmunoprecipitation assays, produced a drastic inhibition of transcription and replication of a TCRV

SUBMITTER: D'Antuono A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4093893 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature