MERS coronavirus nsp1 participates in an efficient propagation through a specific interaction with viral RNA.
MERS-CoV is the only lethal human CoV still endemic in the Arabian Peninsula and neither vaccine nor therapeutics against MERS-CoV infection is available. The nsp1 of CoV is thought to be a major virulence factor because it suppresses protein synthesis through the degradation of host mRNA. In contrast, viral RNA circumvents the nsp1-mediated translational shutoff for an efficient propagation. In this study, we identified amino acid residue in MERS-CoV nsp1 that differ from those of SARS-CoV nsp1, and that appear to be crucial for circumventing the translational shutoff. In addition, reverse genetics analysis suggested the presence of a cis-acting element at the 5'-terminus of the nsp1-coding region, which contributes to the specific recognition of viral RNA that is required for an efficient viral replication. Our results suggest the CoVs share a common mechanism for circumventing the nsp1-mediated translational shutoff.
['Terada|Yutaka|Y|', 'Kawachi|Kengo|K|', 'Matsuura|Yoshiharu|Y|', 'Kamitani|Wataru|W|']
D002460:Cell Line D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis D006801:Humans D065207:Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus D050505:Mutant Proteins D012367:RNA, Viral D059386:Reverse Genetics D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins D014779:Virus Replication
Coronavirus Nsp1 MERS-CoV Viral replication RNA recognition