Dataset Information

Encapsidated hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase is poised on an ordered RNA lattice.

ABSTRACT: Assembly of a hepatitis B virus (HBV) virion begins with the formation of an RNA-filled core composed of a symmetrical capsid (built of core protein), viral pregenomic RNA, and viral reverse transcriptase. To generate the circular dsDNA genome of HBV, reverse transcription requires multiple template switches within the confines of the capsid. To date, most anti-HBV therapeutics target this reverse transcription process. The detailed molecular mechanisms of this crucial process are poorly understood because of the lack of structural information. We hypothesized that capsid, RNA, and viral reverse transcriptase would need a precise geometric organization to accomplish reverse transcription. Here we present the asymmetric structure of authentic RNA-filled cores, determined to 14.5-Å resolution from cryo-EM data. Capsid and RNA are concentric. On the interior of the RNA, we see a distinct donut-like density, assigned to viral reverse transcriptase, which pins the viral pregenomic RNA to the capsid inner surface. The observation of a unique ordered structure inside the core suggests that assembly and the first steps of reverse transcription follow a single, determinate pathway and strongly suggests that all subsequent steps in DNA synthesis do as well.

SUBMITTER: Wang JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4128116 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Encapsidated hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase is poised on an ordered RNA lattice.

Wang Joseph Che-Yen JC Nickens David G DG Lentz Thomas B TB Loeb Daniel D DD Zlotnick Adam A

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140717 31

Assembly of a hepatitis B virus (HBV) virion begins with the formation of an RNA-filled core composed of a symmetrical capsid (built of core protein), viral pregenomic RNA, and viral reverse transcriptase. To generate the circular dsDNA genome of HBV, reverse transcription requires multiple template switches within the confines of the capsid. To date, most anti-HBV therapeutics target this reverse transcription process. The detailed molecular mechanisms of this crucial process are poorly underst ...[more]

PMID: 25034253

Similar Datasets

Project description:Drug resistance resulting from reverse transcriptase (RT) mutations is one of the main obstacles to successful hepatitis B virus (HBV) therapy. Indeed, HBV treatment guidelines recommend HBV genotypic resistance testing for patients receiving nucleos(t)ide RT inhibitors (N(t)RTIs) who develop virological failure. N(t)RTI-resistance mutations at 10 RT positions have been well characterized in phenotypic studies, however, data are lacking on the relative frequency of these mutations in N(t)RTI-treated and untreated individuals. There are also few published data on the extent of amino acid variation at most of the 344 positions of HBV RT and the extent to which this variation is influenced by N(t)RTI treatment. We retrieved 23,871 HBV RT sequences from GenBank and reviewed the published reports of these sequences to ascertain the number of individuals from whom the sequences were obtained, the N(t)RTI treatments of these individuals, and the year and region of virus sampling. We then used these data to populate a relational database we named HBVrtDB. As of July 2010, HBVrtDB contained 6811 sequences from 3869 individuals reported in 281 references. Among these 3869 individuals, 73% were N(t)RTI-naïve and 27% received one or more N(t)RTIs. Among the 10 well-characterized N(t)RTI-resistance mutations, L80I/V, V173L, L180M, A181T, T184S, S202G and M204I/V were significantly associated with treatment with lamivudine, an l-nucleoside analog, and A181S/T/V and N236T were significantly associated with treatment with adefovir, an acyclic nucleoside phosphonate. A similar analysis of ten additional less well-characterized resistance mutations demonstrated a significant association with N(t)RTI treatment for four of the mutations: L82M, S85A, A200V, and Q215S. We also created an interactive program, HBVseq, to enable users to identify mutations in submitted sequences and retrieve the prevalence of these mutations in HBVrtDB according to genotype and N(t)RTI treatment. HBVrtDB and HBVseq are available at http://hivdb.stanford.edu/HBV/releaseNotes/.

Dataset Information

Encapsidated hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase is poised on an ordered RNA lattice.

Publications

Encapsidated hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase is poised on an ordered RNA lattice.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets