Weissenhorn W, Calder L J, Wharton S A, Skehel J J, Wiley D C
Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Children's Hospital, 320 Longwood Avenue Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 May 26;95(11):6032-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.11.6032.
The ectodomain of the Ebola virus Gp2 glycoprotein was solubilized with a trimeric, isoleucine zipper derived from GCN4 (pIIGCN4) in place of the hydrophobic fusion peptide at the N terminus. This chimeric molecule forms a trimeric, highly alpha-helical, and very thermostable molecule, as determined by chemical crosslinking and circular dichroism. Electron microscopy indicates that Gp2 folds into a rod-like structure like influenza HA2 and HIV-1 gp41, providing further evidence that viral fusion proteins from diverse families such as Orthomyxoviridae (Influenza), Retroviridae (HIV-1), and Filoviridae (Ebola) share common structural features, and suggesting a common membrane fusion mechanism.
埃博拉病毒糖蛋白Gp2的胞外结构域是通过用源自GCN4的三聚异亮氨酸拉链(pIIGCN4)替代N端的疏水融合肽来进行溶解的。通过化学交联和圆二色性测定,这种嵌合分子形成了三聚体、高度α螺旋且非常耐热的分子。电子显微镜显示,Gp2折叠成类似流感HA2和HIV-1 gp41的棒状结构,这进一步证明了正粘病毒科(流感)、逆转录病毒科(HIV-1)和丝状病毒科(埃博拉)等不同病毒家族的病毒融合蛋白具有共同的结构特征,并暗示存在共同的膜融合机制。