Structures of human-infecting Thogotovirus fusogens support a common ancestor with insect baculovirus

作者：Ruchao Peng, Shuijun Zhang, Yingzi Cui, Yi Shi, George F. Gao, Jianxun Qi · 发表于：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1073/pnas.1706125114 · 被引用次数：39 · 研究领域：Viral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in Insects、Virus-based gene therapy research、Bacteriophages and microbial interactions

These structures, determined in the postfusion conformation, identified them as class III viral fusion proteins. It is intriguing that the Gp structures are similar to the envelope protein of baculovirus, although sharing a low sequence identity of ∼28%. Detailed structural and phylogenic analyses demonstrated that these Gps originated from a common ancestor. Among the structures, domain I is the most conserved region, particularly the fusion loops. Domain II showed the highest variability among different viruses, which might be related to their distinct host tropism. These findings increase our understanding of the divergent evolution processes of various orthomyxoviruses and indicate potential targets for developing antiviral therapeutics by intercepting virus entry.