An atomistic model of the coronavirus replication-transcription complex as a hexamer assembled around nsp15.

ABSTRACT: The SARS-CoV-2 replication-transcription complex is an assembly of nonstructural viral proteins that collectively act to reproduce the viral genome and generate mRNA transcripts. While the structures of the individual proteins involved are known, how they assemble into a functioning superstructure is not. Applying molecular modeling tools, including protein-protein docking, to the available structures of nsp7-nsp16 and the nucleocapsid, we have constructed an atomistic model of how these proteins associate. Our principal finding is that the complex is hexameric, centered on nsp15. The nsp15 hexamer is capped on two faces by trimers of nsp14/nsp16/(nsp10)₂, which then recruit six nsp12/nsp7/(nsp8)₂ polymerase subunits to the complex. To this, six subunits of nsp13 are

SUBMITTER: Perry JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8494237 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature