2hwk

Structural highlights

Function

[POLN_EEVVT] P123 and P123' are short-lived polyproteins, accumulating during early stage of infection. P123 is directly translated from the genome, whereas P123' is a product of the cleavage of P1234. They localize the viral replication complex to the cytoplasmic surface of modified endosomes and lysosomes. By interacting with nsP4, they start viral genome replication into antigenome. After these early events, P123 and P123' are cleaved sequentially into nsP1, nsP2 and nsP3/nsP3'. This sequence of delayed processing would allow correct assembly and membrane association of the RNA polymerase complex (By similarity). nsP1 is a cytoplasmic capping enzyme. This function is necessary since all viral RNAs are synthesized in the cytoplasm, and host capping enzymes are restricted to the nucleus. The enzymatic reaction involves a covalent link between 7-methyl-GMP and nsP1, whereas eukaryotic capping enzymes form a covalent complex only with GMP. nsP1 capping would consist in the following reactions: GTP is first methylated and then forms the m7GMp-nsP1 complex, from which 7-methyl-GMP complex is transferred to the mRNA to create the cap structure. Palmitoylated nsP1 is remodeling host cell cytoskeleton, and induces filopodium-like structure formation at the surface of the host cell (By similarity). nsP2 has two separate domain with different biological activities. The N-terminal section is part of the RNA polymerase complex and has RNA trisphosphatase and RNA helicase activity. The C-terminal section harbors a protease that specifically cleaves and releases the four mature proteins (By similarity). nsP3 and nsP3' are essential for minus strand and subgenomic 26S mRNA synthesis (By similarity). nsP4 is a RNA dependent RNA polymerase. It replicates genomic and antigenomic RNA by recognizing replications specific signals. Transcribes also a 26S subgenomic mRNA by initiating RNA synthesis internally on antigenomic RNA. This 26S mRNA encodes for structural proteins. nsP4 is a short-lived protein regulated by several ways: the opal codon readthrough and degradation by ubiquitin pathway (By similarity).

Evolutionary Conservation

Check, as determined by ConSurfDB. You may read the explanation of the method and the full data available from ConSurf.

See Also

• Helicase

References

1. ↑ Russo AT, White MA, Watowich SJ. The crystal structure of the Venezuelan equine encephalitis alphavirus nsP2 protease. Structure. 2006 Sep;14(9):1449-58. PMID:16962975 doi:10.1016/j.str.2006.07.010