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The assembly and function of poxvirus proteins
Author(s) -
Jafari Nafiseh Jandaghi,
Szymczyna Blair
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.lb233
Subject(s) - variola virus , vaccinia , poxviridae , virus , computational biology , biology , function (biology) , circular dichroism , virology , viral replication , smallpox virus , monkeypox , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , gene , recombinant dna
Proteins play essential roles in biological processes, and atomic details of their structure and function provide an insight into their biological roles and how they can be manipulated for therapeutic purposes. One class of proteins that are still poorly characterized at the structural level are those involved in pox virus replication. This work describes the structural and functional studies of several proteins involved in Tanapox v irus replication replication. The Tanapox virus is a poxvirus that is related to the medially important vaccinia, variola and Monkeypox viruses. The variola virus is the causative agent of smallpox, which is estimated to have caused 300–500 million deaths in the 19 th century alone and is a potential bioterrorism threat. Structural and functional insights into the proteins and biomolecular complexes that regulate the lifecycle of the virus will aid in the development of therapeutic agents against poxviruses and the development of poxviruses as therapeutic tools against cancer. The main goals of the study were to assess the structure and function of Tanapox proteins using biochemical and biophysical methods. Many Tanapox virus protein construct samples were generated and studied. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was performed on several samples to assess their structural and conformationally dynamic properties. Circular dichroism spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography and electrophoretic mobility shift assays were used to determine the roles of these proteins molecular function. The results reveal that Tanapox virus proteins are generally insoluble when expressed alone. While biophysical studies of insoluble proteins are difficult, the samples generated are ideal for generating antibodies for in vivo functional studies. Support or Funding Information Thank you to Dr. Karim Essani for providing Tanapox genome. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .