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Review
. 1989 Jan 30;243(2):103-14.
doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(89)80109-7.

Cysteine proteases of positive strand RNA viruses and chymotrypsin-like serine proteases. A distinct protein superfamily with a common structural fold

A E Gorbalenya  1 , A P Donchenko, V M Blinov, E V Koonin
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Free article
Review

Cysteine proteases of positive strand RNA viruses and chymotrypsin-like serine proteases. A distinct protein superfamily with a common structural fold

A E Gorbalenya et al. FEBS Lett. .
Free article

Abstract

Evidence is presented, based on sequence comparison and secondary structure prediction, of structural and evolutionary relationship between chymotrypsin-like serine proteases, cysteine proteases of positive strand RNA viruses (3C proteases of picornaviruses and related enzymes of como-, nepo- and potyviruses) and putative serine protease of a sobemovirus. These observations lead to re-identification of principal catalytic residues of viral proteases. Instead of the pair of Cys and His, both located in the C-terminal part of 3C proteases, a triad of conserved His, Asp(Glu) and Cys(Ser) has been identified, the first two residues resident in the N-terminal, and Cys in the C-terminal beta-barrel domain. These residues are suggested to form a charge-transfer system similar to that formed by the catalytic triad of chymotrypsin-like proteases. Based on the structural analogy with chymotrypsin-like proteases, the His residue previously implicated in catalysis, together with two partially conserved Gly residues, is predicted to constitute part of the substrate-binding pocket of 3C proteases. A partially conserved ThrLys/Arg dipeptide located in the loop preceding the catalytic Cys is suggested to confer the primary cleavage specificity of 3C toward Glx/Gly(Ser) sites. These observations provide the first example of relatedness between proteases belonging, by definition, to different classes.

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