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Anderson ML, Sullivan OM, Nichols SL, Kaylor L, Kelly DF, McDonald Esstman S. Rotavirus core shell protein sites that regulate intra-particle polymerase activity. J Virol 2023; 97:e0086023. [PMID: 37830817 PMCID: PMC10617381 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00860-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/06/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Rotaviruses are important causes of severe gastroenteritis in young children. A characteristic feature of rotaviruses is that they copy ribonucleic acid (RNA) inside of the viral particle. In fact, the viral polymerase (VP1) only functions when it is connected to the viral inner core shell protein (VP2). Here, we employed a biochemical assay to identify which sites of VP2 are critical for regulating VP1 activity. Specifically, we engineered VP2 proteins to contain amino acid changes at structurally defined sites and assayed them for their capacity to support VP1 function in a test tube. Through this work, we were able to identify several VP2 residues that appeared to regulate the activity of the polymerase, positively and negatively. These results are important because they help explain how rotavirus synthesizes its RNA while inside of particles and they identify targets for the future rational design of drugs to prevent rotavirus disease.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Owen M. Sullivan
- Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
| | - Sarah L. Nichols
- Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
| | - Liam Kaylor
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Deborah F. Kelly
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
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Anderson ML, McDonald Esstman S. In vitro particle-associated uridyltransferase activity of the rotavirus VP1 polymerase. Virology 2022; 577:24-31. [PMID: 36257129 PMCID: PMC10728782 DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2022.09.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2022] [Revised: 09/29/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Rotaviruses are 11-segmented, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) viruses with a unique intra-particle RNA synthesis mechanism. During genome replication, the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (VP1) performs minus-strand RNA (-ssRNA) synthesis on positive-strand RNA (+ssRNA) templates to create dsRNA segments. Recombinant VP1 catalyzes -ssRNA synthesis using substrate NTPs in vitro, but only when the VP2 core shell protein or virus-like particles made of VP2 and VP6 (2/6-VLPs) are included in the reaction. The dsRNA product can be labeled using [α32P]-UTP and separated from the input +ssRNA template by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Here, we report the generation of [α32P]-labeled rotavirus +ssRNA templates in reactions that lacked non-radiolabeled NTPs but contained catalytically-active VP1, 2/6-VLPs, and [α32P]-UTP. Non-radiolabeled UTP competed with [α32P]-UTP to decrease product levels, whereas CTP and GTP had little effect. Interesting, ATP stimulated [α32P]-labeled product production. These results suggest that rotavirus VP1 transferred [α32P]-UMP onto viral + ssRNA in vitro via a particle-associated uridyltransferase activity.
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Caddy S, Papa G, Borodavka A, Desselberger U. Rotavirus research: 2014-2020. Virus Res 2021; 304:198499. [PMID: 34224769 DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2021.198499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 02/09/2023]
Abstract
Rotaviruses are major causes of acute gastroenteritis in infants and young children worldwide and also cause disease in the young of many other mammalian and of avian species. During the recent 5-6 years rotavirus research has benefitted in a major way from the establishment of plasmid only-based reverse genetics systems, the creation of human and other mammalian intestinal enteroids, and from the wide application of structural biology (cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-EM tomography) and complementary biophysical approaches. All of these have permitted to gain new insights into structure-function relationships of rotaviruses and their interactions with the host. This review follows different stages of the viral replication cycle and summarizes highlights of structure-function studies of rotavirus-encoded proteins (both structural and non-structural), molecular mechanisms of viral replication including involvement of cellular proteins and lipids, the spectrum of viral genomic and antigenic diversity, progress in understanding of innate and acquired immune responses, and further developments of prevention of rotavirus-associated disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Caddy
- Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease Jeffery Cheah Biomedical Centre, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK.
| | - Guido Papa
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge Biomedical Campus Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 0QH, UK.
| | - Alexander Borodavka
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1QW, UK.
| | - Ulrich Desselberger
- Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK.
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Nilsson EM, Sullivan OM, Anderson ML, Argobright HM, Shue TM, Fedowitz FR, LaConte LEW, Esstman SM. Reverse genetic engineering of simian rotaviruses with temperature-sensitive lesions in VP1, VP2, and VP6. Virus Res 2021; 302:198488. [PMID: 34146610 DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2021.198488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 05/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/10/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Rotaviruses are 11-segmented double-stranded RNA viruses and important causes of acute gastroenteritis in young children. To investigate the functions of specific viral proteins during the rotavirus lifecycle, temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants were previously created using a cultivatable simian strain (SA11) and chemical mutagenesis. These ts SA11 mutants replicate more efficiently at the permissive temperature of 31 °C than at the non-permissive temperature of 39 °C. Prototype strains SA11-tsC, SA11-tsF, and SA11-tsG were mapped to the genes encoding structural proteins VP1, VP2, and VP6, respectively, and putative ts lesions were identified using Sanger sequencing. However, additional background mutations in their genomes had hampered validation of the ts lesions and confounded their use in mechanistic studies. Here, we employed plasmid only-based reverse genetics to engineer recombinant (r) SA11 rotaviruses containing only the putative ts lesions of SA11-tsC (L138P change in VP1), SA11-tsF (A387D change in VP2) or SA11-tsG (S10T, D13H, and A121G changes in VP6). For simplicity, we refer to these newly-engineered, isogenic viruses as rSA11-tsVP1, rSA11-tsVP2, and rSA11-tsVP6. Single-cycle growth assays revealed that these mutants indeed exhibit ts phenotypes with significantly diminished titers (>1.5-logs) at 39 °C versus 31 °C. The rSA11 ts mutants proved genetically stable at the population-level following 3 sequential passages at 39 °C, but individual revertant clones were detected in plaque assays. Heat sensitivity experiments showed that pre-incubation of rSA11-tsVP1 or rSA11-tsVP2, but not rSA11-tsVP6, at 39 °C diminished replication at 31 °C. This result indicates that the ts lesions in VP1 and VP2 affect the incoming virion but those in VP6 affect a later stage of the viral lifecycle. In silico molecular dynamics simulations predicted temperature-dependent, long-range effects of the S10T, D13H, and/or A121G changes on the VP6 structure. Altogether, our results confirm the ts lesions of the original SA11-tsC, SA11-tsF, and SA11-tsG mutants, provide a new set of isogenic strains for investigating aspects of rotavirus replication, and shed light on how the ts lesions might impact VP1, VP2, or VP6 functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emil M Nilsson
- Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | - Owen M Sullivan
- Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | | | | | - Taylor M Shue
- Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | | | - Leslie E W LaConte
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Roanoke, VA, USA; Department of Basic Science Education, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA, USA
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Abid N, Pietrucci D, Salemi M, Chillemi G. New Insights into the Effect of Residue Mutations on the Rotavirus VP1 Function Using Molecular Dynamic Simulations. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:5011-5025. [PMID: 32786703 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Rotavirus group A remains a major cause of diarrhea in infants and young children worldwide. The permanent emergence of new genotypes puts the potential effectiveness of vaccines under serious questions. Thirteen VP1 structures with mutations mapping to the RNA entry site were analyzed using molecular dynamics simulations, and the results were combined with the experimental findings reported previously. The results revealed structural fluctuations in the protein-protein recognition sites and in the bottleneck of the RNA entry site that may affect the interaction of different proteins and delay the initiation of the viral replication, respectively. Altogether, the structural analysis of VP1 in the region crucial for the initiation of the viral replication, mainly the bottleneck site, may boost efforts to develop antivirals, as they might complement the available vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nabil Abid
- Laboratory of Transmissible Diseases and Biological Active Substances LR99ES27, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Monastir, Rue Ibn Sina, 5000 Monastir, Tunisia.,High Institute of Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet, Department of Biotechnology, University Manouba, BP-66, 2020 Ariana-Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Daniele Pietrucci
- Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Marco Salemi
- Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100009, Gainesville, Florida 32610-3633, United States
| | - Giovanni Chillemi
- Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems, DIBAF, University of Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis s.n.c., 01100 Viterbo, Italy.,Institute of Biomembranes, Bioenergetics and Molecular Biotechnologies, IBIOM, CNR, Via Giovanni Amendola, 122/O, 70126 Bari, Italy
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