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About the Authors:
Kevin J. Sokoloski
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville KY, United States of America
Lauren M. Nease
Roles Investigation
Affiliation: Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7506-0399
Nicholas A. May
Roles Investigation
Affiliation: Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8662-2091
Natasha N. Gebhart
Roles Conceptualization, Investigation
Affiliation: Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN, United States of America
Claire E. Jones
Roles Investigation
Affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville KY, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8308-6916
Thomas E. Morrison
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Visualization, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, United States of America
Richard W. Hardy
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Visualization, Writing - review & editing
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6912-6291Abstract
Alphaviruses are arthropod-borne viruses that represent a significant threat to public health at a global level. While the formation of alphaviral nucleocapsid cores, consisting of cargo nucleic acid and the viral capsid protein, is an essential molecular process of infection, the precise interactions between the two partners are ill-defined. A CLIP-seq approach was used to screen for candidate sites of interaction between the viral Capsid protein and genomic RNA of Sindbis virus (SINV), a model alphavirus. The data presented in this report indicates that the SINV capsid protein binds to specific viral RNA sequences in the cytoplasm of infected cells, but its interaction with genomic RNA in mature extracellular viral particles is largely non-specific in terms of nucleotide sequence. Mutational analyses of the cytoplasmic viral RNA-capsid interaction sites revealed a functional...