Receptor-binding loops in alphacoronavirus adaptation and evolution

Alan H. M. Wong, Aidan C. A. Tomlinson, Dongxia Zhou, Malathy Satkunarajah, Kevin Chen, Chetna Sharon, Marc Desforges, Pierre J. Talbot and James M. Rini ()
Additional contact information
Alan H. M. Wong: University of Toronto
Aidan C. A. Tomlinson: University of Toronto
Dongxia Zhou: University of Toronto
Malathy Satkunarajah: University of Toronto
Kevin Chen: University of Toronto
Chetna Sharon: University of Toronto
Marc Desforges: Université du Québec
Pierre J. Talbot: Université du Québec
James M. Rini: University of Toronto

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract RNA viruses are characterized by a high mutation rate, a buffer against environmental change. Nevertheless, the means by which random mutation improves viral fitness is not well characterized. Here we report the X-ray crystal structure of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the human coronavirus, HCoV-229E, in complex with the ectodomain of its receptor, aminopeptidase N (APN). Three extended loops are solely responsible for receptor binding and the evolution of HCoV-229E and its close relatives is accompanied by changing loop–receptor interactions. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the natural HCoV-229E receptor-binding loop variation observed defines six RBD classes whose viruses have successively replaced each other in the human population over the past 50 years. These RBD classes differ in their affinity for APN and their ability to bind an HCoV-229E neutralizing antibody. Together, our results provide a model for alphacoronavirus adaptation and evolution based on the use of extended loops for receptor binding.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01706-x 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:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01706-x

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01706-x

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 ().