Regulation of measles virus gene expression by P protein coiled-coil properties.
Bloyet, L.M., Schramm, A., Lazert, C., Raynal, B., Hologne, M., Walker, O., Longhi, S., Gerlier, D.(2019) Sci Adv 5: eaaw3702-eaaw3702
- PubMed: 31086822 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw3702
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
6HTL - PubMed Abstract: 
The polymerase of negative-stranded RNA viruses consists of the large protein (L) and the phosphoprotein (P), the latter serving both as a chaperon and a cofactor for L. We mapped within measles virus (MeV) P the regions responsible for binding and stabilizing L and showed that the coiled-coil multimerization domain (MD) of P is required for gene expression. MeV MD is kinked as a result of the presence of a stammer. Both restoration of the heptad regularity and displacement of the stammer strongly decrease or abrogate activity in a minigenome assay. By contrast, P activity is rather tolerant of substitutions within the stammer. Single substitutions at the "a" or "d" hydrophobic anchor positions with residues of variable hydrophobicity revealed that P functionality requires a narrow range of cohesiveness of its MD. Results collectively indicate that, beyond merely ensuring P oligomerization, the MD finely tunes viral gene expression through its cohesiveness.
Organizational Affiliation: 
CIRI, International Center for Infectiology Research, INSERM, U1111, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5308, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Univ Lyon, Lyon, France.