Structures of African swine fever virus topoisomerase complex and their implications

Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causal agent of African swine fever (ASF), which is contagious and highly lethal to domestic pigs and wild boars. The genome of ASFV encodes many proteins important for ASFV life cycle. The functional importance of topoisomerase AsfvTopII has been confirmed by in vivo and in vitro assays, but the structure of AsfvTopII is poorly studied. Here, we report four AsfvTopII complex structures. The ATPase domain structures reveal the detailed basis for ATP binding and hydrolysis, which is shared by AsfvTopII and eukaryotic TopIIs. The DNA-bound structures show that AsfvTopII follows conserved mechanism in G-DNA binding and cleavage. Besides G-DNA, a T-DNA fragment is also captured in one AsfvTopII structure. Mutagenesis and in vitro assays confirm that Pro852 and the T-DNA-binding residue Tyr744 are important for the function of AsfvTopII. Our study not only advances the understanding on the biological function of AsfvTopII, but also provides a solid basis for the development of AsfvTopII-specific inhibitors.

African swine fever virus Topoisomerase II (AsfvTopII) is essential for the replication of the virus. Here, the authors present several crystal structures and provide mechanistic insights into substrate binding and cleavage by the AsfvTopII protein.