| Title | Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus nucleocapsid protein confers ability to efficiently produce virus-like particles when substituted for the human immunodeficiency virus nucleocapsid domain. | | Author(s) | Wang SM, Chang YF, Chen YM, Wang CT | | Institution | Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. | | Source | J Biomed Sci 2008 Jul 1. | | Abstract | We replaced the HIV-1 nucleocapsid (NC) domain with different N-coding sequences to test SARS-CoV nucleocapsid (N) self-interaction capacity, and determined the capabilities of each chimera to direct virus-like particle (VLP) assembly. Analysis results indicate that the replacement of NC with the carboxyl-terminal half of the SARS-CoV N resulted in the production of wild type (wt)-level virus-like particles (VLPs) with the density of a wt HIV-1 particle. When co-expressed with SARS-CoV N, chimeras containing the N carboxyl-terminal half sequence efficiently packaged N. However, the same was not true for the chimera bearing the N amino-terminal half sequence, despite its production of substantial amounts of VLPs. According to further analysis, HIV-1 NC replacement with N residues 2-213, 215-421, or 234-421 resulted in efficient VLP production at levels comparable to that of wt HIV-1, but replacement with residues 215-359, 302-421, 2-168, or 2-86 failed to restore VLP production to wild-type levels. The results suggest that the domain conferring the ability to direct VLP assembly and release in SARS-CoV N is largely contained between residues 168 and 421. | | Language | ENG | | Pub Type(s) | JOURNAL ARTICLE
| | PubMed ID | 18592403 |
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