1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease
  2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
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Self-capping of nucleoprotein filaments protects Newcastle Disease Virus genome

  1. Xiyong Song
  2. Hong Shan
  3. Yanping Zhu
  4. Shunlin Hu
  5. Ling Xue
  6. Yong Chen
  7. Wei Ding
  8. Tongxin Niu
  9. Jian Gu
  10. Songying Ouyang  Is a corresponding author
  11. Qing-Tao Shen  Is a corresponding author
  12. Zhi-Jie Liu  Is a corresponding author
  1. Kunming Medical University, China
  2. ShanghaiTech University, China
  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  4. Yangzhou University, China
  5. Fujian Normal University, China
Research Article
  • Cited 5
  • Views 1,436
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Cite this article as: eLife 2019;8:e45057 doi: 10.7554/eLife.45057

Abstract

Non-segmented negative-strand RNA viruses, such as Measles, Ebola and Newcastle disease viruses (NDV), encapsidate viral genomic RNAs into helical nucleocapsids which serve as the template for viral replication and transcription. Here, the clam-shaped nucleocapsid structure, where the NDV viral genome is sequestered, was determined at 4.8 Å resolution by cryo-electron microscopy. The clam-shaped structure is composed of two single-turn spirals packed in a back-to-back mode, and the tightly packed structure functions as a seed for nucleocapsid to assemble from both directions and grows into double-headed filaments with two separate RNA strings inside. Disruption of this structure by mutations on its loop interface yielded a single-headed unfunctional filament.

Data availability

The cryo-EM density map has been deposited in EMDB with the accession number EMD-9793. The atom coordinates of the structure have been deposited in PDB with the PDB ID 6JC3.

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Xiyong Song

    Institute of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Hong Shan

    iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Yanping Zhu

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Shunlin Hu

    College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Ling Xue

    College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Yong Chen

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. Wei Ding

    Center for Biological Imaging, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  8. Tongxin Niu

    Center for Biological Imaging, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  9. Jian Gu

    College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  10. Songying Ouyang

    College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China
    For correspondence
    ouyangsy@fjnu.edu.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  11. Qing-Tao Shen

    iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
    For correspondence
    shenqt@shanghaitech.edu.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  12. Zhi-Jie Liu

    Institute of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
    For correspondence
    liuzhj@shanghaiTech.edu.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7279-2893

Funding

National Nature Science Foundation of China grant (31330019)

  • Zhi-Jie Liu

National Nature Science Foundation of China grant (31770948)

  • Songying Ouyang

National Nature Science Foundation of China grant (31570875)

  • Songying Ouyang

National Natural Science Foundation of China grant (81590761)

  • Songying Ouyang

the National Key R&D program of China (2017YFA0504800)

  • Qing-Tao Shen

Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department Project (2016FC007)

  • Zhi-Jie Liu

The Pujiang Talent program (17PJ1406700)

  • Qing-Tao Shen

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. David M Knipe, Harvard Medical School, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: January 10, 2019
  2. Accepted: July 9, 2019
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: July 10, 2019 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: August 1, 2019 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2019, Song et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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