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. 1990 Aug;87(16):6403–6407. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.16.6403

Retroviral nucleocapsid protein-metal ion interactions: folding and sequence variants.

L M Green 1, J M Berg 1
PMCID: PMC54542  PMID: 2385599

Abstract

Retroviral nucleocapsid proteins contain one or two proposed metal-binding sequences of the form Cys-Xaa2-Cys-Xaa4-His-Xaa4-Cys. Previously, we reported that an 18-amino acid peptide derived from the nucleocapsid protein of Rauscher murine leukemia virus (RMLV) binds metals such as Co2+ and Zn2+. We have now synthesized the entire nucleocapsid protein from RMLV. We report here that the protein also binds Co2+ and Zn2+ and does so with a higher affinity than does the peptide. Limited proteolysis and circular dichroism studies reveal that metal binding induces folding of the metal-binding domain and, perhaps, the regions adjacent to it but the remainder of the protein remains in a relatively unstructured state. In addition, we have synthesized sequence variants of the metal-binding domain that correspond to viral mutations reported in the literature. In many cases, the metal-binding properties of these peptides correlate with the observed biological activity, providing further evidence for the importance of metal binding to nucleocapsid function.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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