Abstract
The role of electrostatic interactions in the viral capsid assembly process was studied by comparing the assembly process of a truncated hepatitis B virus capsid protein Cp149 with its mutant protein D2N/D4N, which has the same conformational structure but four fewer charges per dimer. The capsid protein self-assembly was investigated under a wide range of protein surface charge densities by changing the protein concentration, buffer pH, and solution ionic strength. Lowering the protein charge density favored the capsid formation. However, lowering charge beyond a certain point resulted in capsid aggregation and precipitation. Interestingly, both the wild-type and D2N/D4N mutant displayed identical assembly profiles when their charge densities matched each other. These results indicated that the charge density was optimized by nature to ensure an efficient and effective capsid proliferation under the physiological pH and ionic strength.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-20-2018
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b00021
Funding Information
T.L. acknowledges support from NSF (CHE1607138) and The University of Akron.
Related Content
The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.8b00021.
Repository Citation
Sun, Xinyu; Li, Dong; Wang, Zhaoshuai; Yin, Panchao; Hu, Rundong; Hu, Rundong; Li, Hui; Liu, Qiao; Gao, Yunyi; Ren, Baiping; Zheng, Jie; Wei, Yinan; and Liu, Tianbo, "Role of Protein Charge Density on Hepatitis B Virus Capsid Formation" (2018). Chemistry Faculty Publications. 123.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/chemistry_facpub/123
Supporting Information
Notes/Citation Information
Published in ACS Omega, v. 3, issue 4, 4384-4391.
Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society
This is an open access article published under an ACS AuthorChoice License, which permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.