The E Protein Is a Multifunctional Membrane Protein of SARS-CoV

(整期优先)网络出版时间:2003-02-12
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TheE(envelope)proteinisthesmalleststructuralproteininallcoronavirusesandistheonlyviralstructuralproteininwhichnovariationhasbeendetected.WeconductedgenomesequencingandphylogeneticanalysesofSARS-CoV.Basedongenomesequencing,wepredictedtheEproteinisatransmembrane(TM)pro-teincharacterizedbyaTMregionwithstronghydrophobicityandα-helixcon-formation.Weidentifiedasegment(NH2-_L-Cys-A-Y-Cys-Cys-N_-COOH)inthecarboxyl-terminalregionoftheEproteinthatappearstoformthreedisulfidebondswithanothersegmentofcorrespondingcysteinesinthecarboxyl-terminusoftheS(spike)protein.ThesebondspointtoapossiblestructuralassociationbetweentheEandSproteins.OurphylogeneticanalysesoftheEproteinsequencesinallpub-lishedcoronavirusesplaceSARS-CoVinanindependentgroupinCoronaviridaeandsuggestanon-humananimalorigin.