Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Genetics And Functions Of The Sars Coronavirus Spike Protein, Chad Michael Petit
Genetics And Functions Of The Sars Coronavirus Spike Protein, Chad Michael Petit
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
The SARS-Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is the etiological agent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The SARS-CoV spike (S) glycoprotein mediates membrane fusion events during virus entry and virus-induced cell-to-cell fusion. Investigations, described herein, have focused on the genetic manipulation of the SARS-CoV S glycoprotein in order to delineate functional domains within the protein. This was accomplished by incorporating single point mutations, cluster-to-lysine and cluster-to-alanine mutations, as well as carboxyl terminal truncations into the protein and investigating these mutants in transient expression experiments. Mutagenesis of either the coiled-coil domain of the S glycoprotein amino terminal heptad repeat, the predicted fusion peptide, …