The preference signature of the SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid NTD for its 5’-genomic RNA elements

Sophie Marianne Korn, Karthikeyan Dhamotharan, Cy M. Jeffries and Andreas Schlundt ()
Additional contact information
Sophie Marianne Korn: Goethe University Frankfurt
Karthikeyan Dhamotharan: Goethe University Frankfurt
Cy M. Jeffries: c/o Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
Andreas Schlundt: Goethe University Frankfurt

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract The nucleocapsid protein (N) of SARS-CoV-2 plays a pivotal role during the viral life cycle. It is involved in RNA transcription and accounts for packaging of the large genome into virus particles. N manages the enigmatic balance of bulk RNA-coating versus precise RNA-binding to designated cis-regulatory elements. Numerous studies report the involvement of its disordered segments in non-selective RNA-recognition, but how N organizes the inevitable recognition of specific motifs remains unanswered. We here use NMR spectroscopy to systematically analyze the interactions of N’s N-terminal RNA-binding domain (NTD) with individual cis RNA elements clustering in the SARS-CoV-2 regulatory 5’-genomic end. Supported by broad solution-based biophysical data, we unravel the NTD RNA-binding preferences in the natural genome context. We show that the domain’s flexible regions read the intrinsic signature of preferred RNA elements for selective and stable complex formation within the large pool of available motifs.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38882-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38882-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38882-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().