Icosahedral Virion Scaffolding Proteins

9982284FaneVirion的形态发生通常依赖于病毒支架蛋白。类似于建筑结构中使用的支架，这些蛋白质指导病毒成分组装成感染因子，但在最终产品中没有发现。不同的区域或结构域，在支架蛋白和所有的蛋白质中，执行不同的功能。通过基因工程，可以确定这些结构域的功能。在这些研究中，用嵌合蛋白进行的实验阐明了微病毒科支架蛋白的功能域。这些嵌合体是由来自不同但在进化上相关的病毒的蛋白质序列构建的。一些嵌合蛋白只能执行自然存在的蛋白质所执行的功能的一个子集。当这些部分功能的蛋白质与其他病毒成分相互作用时，它们可以抑制形态发生，阻止病毒复制。反过来，病毒可以发生变异，对基因工程蛋白的抑制作用产生抗性。这些研究结果将为重组蛋白的设计、抗病毒药物的策略、抗病毒药物的抗性机制和病毒粒子的形态发生提供新的见解。

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.