Determination of the intramolecular disulfide bond arrangement and biochemical identification of the glycosylation sites of the nonstructural protein NS1 of Murray Valley encephalitis virus

J Gen Virol. 2001 Sep;82(Pt 9):2251-2256. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-82-9-2251.

Abstract

The 12 cysteine residues in the flavivirus NS1 protein are strictly conserved, suggesting that they form disulfide bonds that are critical for folding the protein into a functional structure. In this study, we examined the intramolecular disulfide bond arrangement of NS1 of Murray Valley encephalitis virus and elucidated three of the six cysteine-pairing arrangements. Disulfide linkages were identified by separating tryptic-digested NS1 by reverse-phase high pressure liquid chromatography and analysing the resulting peptide peaks by protein sequencing, amino acid analysis and/or electrospray mass spectrometry. The pairing arrangements between the six amino-terminal cysteines were identified as follows: Cys(4)-Cys(15), Cys(55)-Cys(143) and Cys(179)-Cys(223). Although the pairing arrangements between the six carboxy-terminal cysteines were not determined, we were able to eliminate several cysteine-pairing combinations. Furthermore, we demonstrated that all three putative N-linked glycosylation sites of NS1 are utilized and that the Asn(207) glycosylation site contains a mannose-rich glycan.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Disulfides
  • Encephalitis Virus, Murray Valley / chemistry*
  • Glycosylation
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins / chemistry*

Substances

  • Disulfides
  • NS1 protein, Flavivirus
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins