Biochemical and biophysical characterization of the transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus fusion core

Journal Article · Fri Dec 02 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2005.09.189· OSTI ID:20713466

Guangpeng, Ma ^[1]; Youjun, Feng ^[2]; Feng, Gao ^[2]; Jinzi, Wang ^[3]; Cheng, Liu ^[3]; Yijing, Li ^[1]

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1. Department of Preventive Veterinary, College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agriculture University, 150030 Harbin (China)
2. Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Molecular Virology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080 (China)
3. China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094 (China)

Transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (TGEV) is one of the most destructive agents, responsible for the enteric infections that are lethal for suckling piglets, causing enormous economic loss to the porcine fostering industry every year. Although it has been known that TGEV spiker protein is essential for the viral entry for many years, the detail knowledge of the TGEV fusion protein core is still very limited. Here, we report that TGEV fusion core (HR1-SGGRGG-HR2), in vitro expressed in GST prokaryotic expression system, shares the typical properties of the trimer of coiled-coil heterodimer (six {alpha}-helix bundle), which has been confirmed by a combined series of biochemical and biophysical evidences including size exclusion chromatography (gel-filtration), chemical crossing, and circular diagram. The 3D homologous structure model presents its most likely structure, extremely similar to those of the coronaviruses documented. Taken together, TGEV spiker protein belongs to the class I fusion protein, characterized by the existence of two heptad-repeat (HR) regions, HR1 and HR2, and the present knowledge about the truncated TGEV fusion protein core may facilitate in the design of the small molecule or polypeptide drugs targeting the membrane fusion between TGEV and its host.

• OSTI ID: 20713466
• Journal Information: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Journal Name: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 337; ISSN 0006-291X; ISSN BBRCA9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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