First Crystal Structure of a Nonstructural Hepatitis E Viral Protein Identifies a Putative Novel Zinc-Binding Protein.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a 7.2-kb positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus containing three partially overlapping reading frames, ORF1 to ORF3. All nonstructural proteins required for viral replication are encoded by ORF1 and are transcribed as a single transcript. Computational analysis of the complete ORF1 polyprotein identified a previously uncharacterized region of predicted secondary structure bordered by two disordered regions coinciding partially with a region predicted as a putative cysteine protease. Following successful cloning, expression, and purification of this region, the crystal structure of the identified protein was determined and identified to have considerable structural homology to a fatty acid binding domain. Further analysis of the structure revealed a metal bindi

SUBMITTER: Proudfoot A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6580954 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature