Figure 1. . Cysteine replacement on surface protrusion domain of hepatitis E virus virus-like particle.

Cysteine mutation was proposed on residues Y485, T489, S533, N573 and T586 at flexible coil region to minimize the disturbance to the secondary structure of capsid protein (A). The residue N573 is located in proximity to the binding site of HEP230. All the selected residues for cysteine mutation were located at the surface of the P-domain, with residue Y485 (cyan), T489 (yellow), T586 (orange) on the outmost surface, and residues S533 (magenta) and N573 (red) at side facing virus-like particle fivefold axis (B).

AA: Target sequence; Pred: Predicted secondary structure.