The Viral Class II Membrane Fusion Machinery: Divergent Evolution from an Ancestral Heterodimer.

ABSTRACT: A key step during the entry of enveloped viruses into cells is the merger of viral and cell lipid bilayers. This process is driven by a dedicated membrane fusion protein (MFP) present at the virion surface, which undergoes a membrane-fusogenic conformational change triggered by interactions with the target cell. Viral MFPs have been extensively studied structurally, and are divided into three classes depending on their three-dimensional fold. Because MFPs of the same class are found in otherwise unrelated viruses, their intra-class structural homology indicates horizontal gene exchange. We focus this review on the class II fusion machinery, which is composed of two glycoproteins that associate as heterodimers. They fold together in the ER of infected cells such that the MFP adopts a confor

SUBMITTER: Guardado-Calvo P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8706100 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature