Icosahedral Virion Scaffolding Proteins

9982284FaneVirion的形态发生通常依赖于病毒支架蛋白。类似于建筑中使用的脚手架，这些蛋白质直接将病毒成分组装成感染剂，但在最终产品中没有发现。支架蛋白内的不同区域或结构域，以及所有蛋白质通常执行不同的功能。有了基因工程，就有可能确定这些结构域的功能。在这些研究中，微病毒科支架蛋白的功能结构域是通过使用嵌合蛋白进行的实验来阐明的。这些嵌合体是由来自不同但进化相关的病毒的蛋白质序列构建的。一些嵌合蛋白质只能执行自然产生的蛋白质所执行的功能的一部分。当这些部分功能蛋白与其他病毒成分相互作用时，它们可以抑制形态发生，防止病毒复制。反过来，病毒会发生变异，对基因工程蛋白的抑制作用产生抵抗力。预计这些研究结果将为重组蛋白的设计、可能的抗病毒药物的策略、抗病毒药物的耐药机制和病毒粒子的形态发生提供见解。

9982284FaneVirion morphogenesis is often dependent on viral scaffolding proteins. Analogous to scaffoldings used in building construction, these proteins direct the assembly of viral components into infectious agents, but are not found in the final product. Different regions, or domains, within scaffolding proteins, and all proteins in general, perform different functions. And with genetic engineering, it is possible to determine the functions of these domains. In these studies, the functional domains of the Microviridae scaffolding proteins are elucidated in experiments conducted with chimeric proteins. These chimeras are constructed from protein sequences derived from different, but evolutionarily related viruses. Some chimeric proteins can only perform a subset of the functions performed by the naturally occurring proteins. When these partially functional proteins interact within other viral components they can inhibit morphogenesis, preventing virus replication. In turn, viruses can mutate to become resistant to the inhibitory effects of the genetically engineered proteins. It is expected that the results of these studies will provide insights into the design of recombinant proteins, strategies for possible antiviral agents, mechanisms of resistance to antiviral agents and virion morphogenesis.