3f9g

Publication Abstract from PubMed

The 3C-like protease of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV 3CL(pro)) is vital for SARS-CoV replication and is a promising drug target. It has been extensively proved that only the dimeric enzyme is active. Here we discovered that two adjacent mutations (Ser139_Ala and Phe140_Ala) on the dimer interface resulted in completely different crystal structures of the enzyme, demonstrating the distinct roles of these two residues in maintaining the active conformation of SARS-CoV 3CL(pro). S139A is a monomer that is structurally similar to the two reported monomers G11A and R298A. However, this mutant still retains a small fraction of dimer in solution, which might account for its remaining activity. F140A is a dimer with the most collapsed active pocket discovered so far, well-reflecting the stabilizing role of this residue. Moreover, a plausible dimerization mechanism was also deduced from structural analysis. Our work is expected to provide insight on the dimerization-function relationship of SARS-CoV 3CL(pro).

Two adjacent mutations on the dimer interface of SARS coronavirus 3C-like protease cause different conformational changes in crystal structure.,Hu T, Zhang Y, Li L, Wang K, Chen S, Chen J, Ding J, Jiang H, Shen X Virology. 2009 Jun 5;388(2):324-34. Epub 2009 May 5. PMID:19409595^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.