Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98185, USA.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2013 Aug;16(4):493-9. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2013.04.005. Epub 2013 May 28.
Germ line encoded antiviral defenses in vertebrate cells tend to be either broadly acting factors that exploit general features of viral replication or effectors with strong pathogen preference by virtue of specific recognition of viral proteins. The Mx GTPases, however, are atypical since they have broad antiviral activity against a wide range of RNA and DNA viruses despite specifically targeting different proteins across virus families. This review presents recent advances in understanding the biochemical properties and evolution of the primate ortholog MxA, and discusses how this information begins to provide molecular insights into the mechanisms behind the intriguing conundrum of how MxA is able to engage a diversity of viral proteins yet elicit antiviral breadth.
脊椎动物细胞中的种系编码抗病毒防御倾向于要么是利用病毒复制的一般特征的广泛作用因子，要么是通过对病毒蛋白的特异性识别而具有强烈病原体偏好的效应因子。然而，Mx GTPases 是不同寻常的，因为它们具有针对广泛的 RNA 和 DNA 病毒的广泛抗病毒活性，尽管它们专门针对不同的病毒家族的蛋白。这篇综述介绍了对灵长类动物同源物 MxA 的生化特性和进化的理解的最新进展，并讨论了这些信息如何开始为令人着迷的难题提供分子见解，即 MxA 如何能够与多种病毒蛋白结合，但又能引发广泛的抗病毒作用。
