STRUCTURAL STUDIES OF THE ROUS SARCOMA VIRUS (RSV) CAPSID PROTEIN. Ladislau C. Kovari1, Cory Momany1, Faith Miyagi1, Rui Zhao1, Stephen Campbell2, Bao Vong2, Volker M. Vogt2, Michael G. Rossmann1, 1Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA, 2Section of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
The RSV and HIV virus capsid (CA) proteins exhibit structural and functional similarities. Secondary structural predictions suggest that the two capsid proteins share the same fold. Knowledge of the CA protein structure should prove useful in designing anti-retroviral agents that inhibit viral uncoating, assembly, maturation or release.
Crystals of RSV CA diffract X-rays to 3.5 Å resolution. The crystals belong to the monoclinic space group C2 with unit cell parameters a = 374.4 Å, b = 128.1 Å,
c = 200.2 Å and [[beta]] = 121.8deg.. An asymmetric unit of the crystal should contain 20 to 30 molecules based on reasonable VM values. Diffraction data of native and heavy atom derivatives were collected on frozen crystals at home and at CHESS. Self rotation functions suggest that RSV CA crystallizes as a helical array.