Human DDX17 unwinds Rift Valley fever virus non-coding RNAs
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Date
2020
Authors
Nelson, Corey R.
Mrozowich, Tyler
Park, Sean M.
D'Souza, Simmone
Henrickson, Amy
Vigar, Justin R. J.
Wieden, Hans-Joachim
Owens, Raymond J.
Demeler, Borries
Patel, Trushar R.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Abstract
Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-transmitted virus from the Bunyaviridae family that causes high rates of mortality and morbidity in humans and ruminant animals. Previous studies indicated that DEAD-box helicase 17 (DDX17) restricts RVFV replication by recognizing two primary non-coding RNAs in the S-segment of the genome: the intergenic region (IGR) and 5′ non-coding region (NCR). However, we lack molecular insights into the direct binding of DDX17 with RVFV non-coding RNAs and information on the unwinding of both non-coding RNAs by DDX17. Therefore, we performed an extensive biophysical analysis of the DDX17 helicase domain (DDX17135–555) and RVFV non-coding RNAs, IGR and 5’ NCR. The homogeneity studies using analytical ultracentrifugation indicated that DDX17135–555, IGR, and 5’ NCR are pure. Next, we performed small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments, which suggested that DDX17 and both RNAs are homogenous as well. SAXS analysis also demonstrated that DDX17 is globular to an extent, whereas the RNAs adopt an extended conformation in solution. Subsequently, microscale thermophoresis (MST) experiments were performed to investigate the direct binding of DDX17 to the non-coding RNAs. The MST experiments demonstrated that DDX17 binds with the IGR and 5’ NCR with a dissociation constant of 5.77 ± 0.15 µM and 9.85 ± 0.11 µM, respectively. As DDX17135–555 is an RNA helicase, we next determined if it could unwind IGR and NCR. We developed a helicase assay using MST and fluorescently-labeled oligos, which suggested DDX17135–555 can unwind both RNAs. Overall, our study provides direct evidence of DDX17135–555 interacting with and unwinding RVFV non-coding regions
Description
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) applies
Keywords
Rift Valley fever virus RNA , Helicase DDX17 , Host-viral interactions , Analytical ultracentrifuge , Microscale thermophoresis , Fluorescent labeling , Helicase assay
Citation
Nelson, C. R., Mrozowich, T., Park, S. M., D'souza, S., Henrickson, A., Vigar, J.R. J., Wieden, H.-J., Owens, R. J., Demeler, B., & Patel, T. R. (2020). Human DDX17 unwinds Rift Valley fever virus non-coding RNAs. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(1), Article 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22010054