Figure 2.

Both C123 and C171 play an important role in E1 homooligomerization. (A) Schematic representation of the distribution of cysteine residues in the E1 and E2 proteins of pestiviruses (BVDV CP7 as an example). Numbered circles represent the positions of the Cys residues in E1 and E2. Curved black arrows indicate internal disulfide bonds identified during E2 3D structure determination [17,18]. (B) The given constructs coding for HA-tagged E1 wt and mutants with Cys to Ser exchanges were transfected into RK-13 cells and expression products were analyzed via western blot. The cells were lysed and separated by SDS-PAGE under nonreducing conditions. Western blot analysis was carried out using primary antibody α-HA and secondary antibody anti-rabbit-PO for the detection of proteins. A file is provided in the Supplementary Materials with the original western blot results to demonstrate that the two parts of the lower panel were derived from one gel.