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Orally-transmitted viruses have evolved in a way to resist the extreme conditions of the host’s gastrointestinal environment, especially the proteolysis of their structural proteins. However, the mechanisms allowing these viruses to survive these harsh conditions remain unclear. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an orally-transmitted human pathogen. Its capsid protein contains three domains S, P1 and P2. The latter forms a homodimer protruding from the virus shell, making it the most exposed part. By combining biochemical and computational methods, we found the trypsin digestion sites to be highly conserved among the HEV strains. Furthermore, the constructs of the HEV capsid protein that contain an extended P2 domain were digested within the extensions leaving the P2 domain intact. The trypsinization seems to occur in three possible double cleavages at R451-R619, R460-R619 or R460-R631.The dimerization disrupts the trypsin action at three main sites in the P2 domain R542, K544 and K554. These sites are very exposed in the monomeric P2 domain constructs which makes the monomeric forms very susceptible to trypsin action. Therefore, we believe that dimerization is a structural feature that has been selected by the evolutionary forces to render the HEV capsid protein resistant to the host’s proteases; an evolutionary feature that could be common to some other (if not all) orally-transmitted viruses.

Dimerization: a structural feature for the protection of hepatitis E virus capsid protein against trypsinization