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Transmembrane Domains Of Highly Pathogenic Viral Fusion Proteins Exhibit Trimeric Association In Vitro, Stacy R. Webb, Stacy E. Smith, Michael G. Fried, Rebecca Ellis Dutch

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Enveloped viruses require viral fusion proteins to promote fusion of the viral envelope with a target cell membrane. To drive fusion, these proteins undergo large conformational changes that must occur at the right place and at the right time. Understanding the elements which control the stability of the prefusion state and the initiation of conformational changes is key to understanding the function of these important proteins. The construction of mutations in the fusion protein transmembrane domains (TMDs) or the replacement of these domains with lipid anchors has implicated the TMD in the fusion process. However, the structural and molecular details …