Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the heptad‐repeat complex of SARS coronavirus spike protein

Abstract

The aetiological agent of an emergent outbreak of atypical pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is a positive‐stranded RNA virus (SARS‐CoV) belonging to the Coronaviridae family with a genome that differs substantially from those of other known coronaviruses. Highly conserved heptad‐repeat (HR1 and HR2) regions in class I viral fusion proteins, including spike protein from SARS coronavirus, interact with each other to form a six‐helix bundle, which is called a fusion core. The crystal structure of the fusion core is expected to greatly facilitate drug design. Crystals of the fusion core of SARS‐CoV spike protein have been grown at 291 K using PEG 4000 as precipitant. The diffraction pattern of the crystal extends to 2.8 Å resolution at 100 K in‐house. The crystals have unit‐cell parameters a = 121.2, b = 66.3, c = 70.0 Å, α = γ = 90, β = 107.4° and belong to space group C2. Assuming the presence of six molecules per asymmetric unit, the solvent content is estimated to be about 28%.

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