Search results for " RNA"
showing 5 items of 1405 documents
Biochemical and structural analysis of the NS5B RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of the hepatitis C virus.
2000
Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the major causative agent of chronic and sporadic non-A, non-B hepatitis worldwide, is a distinct member of the Flaviviridae virus family. These viruses have in common a plus-strand RNA genome that is replicated in the cytoplasm of the infected cell via minus-strand RNA intermediates. Owing to the lack of reliable cell culture systems and convenient animal models for HCV, the mechanisms governing RNA replication are not known. As a first step towards the development of appropriate in vitro systems, we expressed the NS5B RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) in insect cells, purified the protein to near homogeneity and studied its biochemical properties. It is a primer…
Enhancement of hepatitis C virus RNA replication by cell culture-adaptive mutations.
2001
ABSTRACT Studies of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication cycle have been made possible with the development of subgenomic selectable RNAs that replicate autonomously in cultured cells. In these replicons the region encoding the HCV structural proteins was replaced by the neomycin phosphotransferase gene, allowing the selection of transfected cells that support high-level replication of these RNAs. Subsequent analyses revealed that, within selected cells, HCV RNAs had acquired adaptive mutations that increased the efficiency of colony formation by an unknown mechanism. Using a panel of replicons that differed in their degrees of cell culture adaptation, in this study we show that adaptive…
Viral and cellular determinants of hepatitis C virus RNA replication in cell culture.
2003
Studies on the replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) have been facilitated by the development of selectable subgenomic replicons replicating in the human hepatoma cell line Huh-7 at a surprisingly high level. Analysis of the replicon population in selected cells revealed the occurrence of cell culture-adaptive mutations that enhance RNA replication substantially. To gain a better understanding of HCV cell culture adaptation, we characterized conserved mutations identified by sequence analysis of 26 independent replicon cell clones for their effect on RNA replication. Mutations enhancing replication were found in nearly every nonstructural (NS) protein, and they could be subdivided into at …
Biochemical properties of hepatitis C virus NS5B RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and identification of amino acid sequence motifs essential for enzymati…
1997
The NS5B protein of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) (S.-E. Behrens, L. Tomei, and R. De Francesco, EMBO J. 15:12-22, 1996) that is assumed to be required for replication of the viral genome. To further study the biochemical and structural properties of this enzyme, an NS5B-hexahistidine fusion protein was expressed with recombinant baculoviruses in insect cells and purified to near homogeneity. The enzyme was found to have a primer-dependent RdRp activity that was able to copy a complete in vitro-transcribed HCV genome in the absence of additional viral or cellular factors. Filter binding assays and competition experiments showed that the purified enzym…
Molecular Basis of SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1-Induced Immune Translational Shutdown as Revealed by All-Atom Simulations.
2021
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic represents the most severe global health crisis in modern human history. One of the major SARS-CoV-2 virulence factors is nonstructural protein 1 (Nsp1), which, outcompeting with the binding of host mRNA to the human ribosome, triggers a translation shutdown of the host immune system. Here, microsecond-long all-atom simulations of the C-terminal portion of the SARS-CoV-2/SARS-CoV Nsp1 in complex with the 40S ribosome disclose that SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1 has evolved from its SARS-CoV ortholog to more effectively hijack the ribosome by undergoing a critical switch of Q/E158 and E/Q159 residues that perfects Nsp1's interactions…