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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Bluetongue virus (BTV) non-structural protein 1 (NS1) regulates viral protein synthesis and exists as tubular and non-tubular forms in infected cells, but how tubules assemble and how protein synthesis is regulated are unknown. Here, we report near-atomic resolution structures of two NS1 tubular forms determined by cryo-electron microscopy. The two tubular forms are different helical assemblies of the same NS1 monomer, consisting of an amino-terminal foot, a head and body domains connected to an extended carboxy-terminal arm, which wraps atop the head domain of another NS1 subunit through hydrophobic interactions. Deletion of the C terminus prevents tubule formation but not viral replication, suggesting an active non-tubular form. Two zinc-finger-like motifs are present in each NS1 monomer, and tubules are disrupted by divalent cation chelation and restored by cation addition, including Zn(2+), suggesting a regulatory role of divalent cations in tubule formation. In vitro luciferase assays show that the NS1 non-tubular form upregulates BTV mRNA translation, whereas zinc-finger disruption decreases viral mRNA translation, tubule formation and virus replication, confirming a functional role for the zinc-fingers. Thus, the non-tubular form of NS1 is sufficient for viral protein synthesis and infectious virus replication, and the regulatory mechanism involved operates through divalent cation-dependent conversion between the non-tubular and tubular forms.

Atomic structure of the translation regulatory protein NS1 of bluetongue virus.,Kerviel A, Ge P, Lai M, Jih J, Boyce M, Zhang X, Zhou ZH, Roy P Nat Microbiol. 2019 Feb 18. pii: 10.1038/s41564-019-0369-x. doi:, 10.1038/s41564-019-0369-x. PMID:30778144^[1]

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