Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1993 Feb 25;21(4):823-9.
doi: 10.1093/nar/21.4.823.

Two short basic sequences surrounding the zinc finger of nucleocapsid protein NCp10 of Moloney murine leukemia virus are critical for RNA annealing activity

H De Rocquigny  1 , D Ficheux, C Gabus, B Allain, M C Fournie-Zaluski, J L Darlix, B P Roques
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Two short basic sequences surrounding the zinc finger of nucleocapsid protein NCp10 of Moloney murine leukemia virus are critical for RNA annealing activity

H De Rocquigny et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

The 56 amino acid nucleocapsid protein (NCp10) of Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus, contains a CysX2CysX4HisX4Cys zinc finger flanked by basic residues. In vitro NCp10 promotes genomic RNA dimerization, a process most probably linked to genomic RNA packaging, and replication primer tRNA(Pro) annealing to the initiation site of reverse transcription. To characterize the amino-acid sequences involved in the various functions of NCp10, we have synthesized by solid phase method the native protein and a series of derived peptides shortened at the N- or C-terminus with or without the zinc finger domain. In the latter case, the two parts of the protein were linked by a Glycine - Glycine spacer. The in vitro studies of these peptides show that nucleic acid annealing activities of NCp10 do not require a zinc finger but are critically dependent on the presence of specific sequences located on each side of the CCHC domain and containing proline and basic residues. Thus, deletion of 11R or 49PRPQT, of the fully active 29 residue peptide 11RQGGERRRSQLDRDGGKKPRGPRGPRPQT53 leads to a complete loss of NCp10 activity. Therefore it is proposed that in NCp10, the zinc finger directs the spatial recognition of the target RNAs by the basic domains surrounding the zinc finger.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. EMBO J. 1989 Nov;8(11):3279-85 - PubMed
    1. J Virol. 1989 Apr;63(4):1558-68 - PubMed
    1. Biochemistry. 1989 Dec 26;28(26):10043-7 - PubMed
    1. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Jan 11;18(1):119-27 - PubMed
    1. J Virol. 1990 May;64(5):1920-6 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms