Structure–Function Analysis of Mutant RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase Complexes with VPg

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Chaojiang Gu^1,2#, Tao Zeng^3,4#, Yong Li¹, Zhenghui Xu¹, Zhongxi Mo^3*, and Congyi Zheng^1*

¹State Key Laboratory of Virology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China; E-mail: cctcc202@whu.edu.cn

²Division of Molecular Virology, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University, New York, NY 10019, USA

³School of Mathematics and Statistics, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China; E-mail: zhxmo@whu.edu.cn

⁴School of Computer Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

^# These authors contributed equally to this work.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received August 25, 2008; Revision received April 21, 2009

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The replication of the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) genome is critically dependent upon the activity of a virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). In this study, four mutant RdRps of FMDV were isolated from viral quasi-species treated with ribavirin, of which two were single mutants (L123F and T381A) and two were double mutants (T291I/T381I and L123F/F244L). The mutant proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by His-bind resin chromatography. In combination with real-time RT-PCR, an in vitro RNA replication system that uses genome RNA/VPg as template–primers was used to determine polymerase activity. Mutant L123F exhibited a 0.6-fold decrease (p < 0.001) in polymerase activity relative to wild-type RdRp, whereas the activity of L123F/F244L and T381A was undetectable. Surprisingly, the activity of T291I/T381I yielded a 0.7-fold increase (p < 0.001) as compared to wild-type. In order to study the structure–function relationship of RdRp, all structures of the RdRp–RNA template–primer complex were obtained through homology modeling and molecular docking. The VPg1 orientation in the RdRp–VPg1 complexes was determined and analyzed with mathematical methods. Our results reveal that the orientation of VPg after binding to the polymerase determines the FMDV RdRp catalytic activity, which provides a basis for the rational design of novel antiviral agents.

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KEY WORDS: foot-and-mouth disease virus, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity, homogenous modeling, molecular docking, VPg orientation

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297909100095

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