European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Hamburg Outstation, D-22603 Hamburg, Germany.
J Virol. 2011 Jul;85(14):7449-53. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00255-11. Epub 2011 May 11.
Arterivirus replicase polyproteins are cleaved into at least 13 mature nonstructural proteins (nsps), and in particular the nsp5-to-nsp8 region is subject to a complex processing cascade. The function of the largest subunit from this region, nsp7, which is further cleaved into nsp7α and nsp7β, is unknown. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we determined the solution structure of nsp7α of equine arteritis virus, revealing an interesting unique fold for this protein but thereby providing little clue to its possible functions. Nevertheless, structure-based reverse genetics studies established the importance of nsp7/nsp7α for viral RNA synthesis, thus providing a basis for future studies.
动脉炎病毒复制酶多聚蛋白至少被切割成 13 种成熟的非结构蛋白（nsps），特别是 nsp5 到 nsp8 区域受到复杂的加工级联反应的影响。该区域最大亚基 nsp7 进一步被切割成 nsp7α 和 nsp7β，但 nsp7 的功能未知。我们使用核磁共振（NMR）光谱法测定了马动脉炎病毒 nsp7α 的溶液结构，揭示了该蛋白独特的有趣折叠，但几乎没有提供其可能功能的线索。尽管如此，基于结构的反向遗传学研究确立了 nsp7/nsp7α 对病毒 RNA 合成的重要性，从而为未来的研究提供了基础。
