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A hinge glycan regulates spike bending and impacts coronavirus infectivity
Structural highlights
FunctionSPIKE_CVHNL S1 region attaches the virion to the cell membrane by interacting with human ACE2, initiating the infection. Binding to the receptor probably induces conformational changes in the S glycoprotein unmasking the fusion peptide of S2 region and activating membranes fusion. S2 region belongs to the class I viral fusion protein. Under the current model, the protein has at least 3 conformational states: pre-fusion native state, pre-hairpin intermediate state, and post-fusion hairpin state. During viral and target cell membrane fusion, the coiled coil regions (heptad repeats) regions assume a trimer-of-hairpins structure, positioning the fusion peptide in close proximity to the C-terminal region of the ectodomain. The formation of this structure appears to drive apposition and subsequent fusion of viral and target cell membranes (By similarity). Publication Abstract from PubMedCoronavirus spike glycoproteins presented on the virion surface mediate receptor binding, and membrane fusion during virus entry and constitute the primary target for vaccine and drug development. How the structure dynamics of the full-length spikes incorporated in viral lipid envelope correlates with the virus infectivity remains poorly understood. Here we present structures and distributions of native spike conformations on vitrified human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) virions without chemical fixation by cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET) and subtomogram averaging, along with site-specific glycan composition and occupancy determined by mass spectrometry. The higher oligomannose glycan shield on HCoV-NL63 spikes than on SARS-CoV-2 spikes correlates with stronger immune evasion of HCoV-NL63. Incorporation of cryoET-derived native spike conformations into all-atom molecular dynamic simulations elucidate the conformational landscape of the glycosylated, full-length spike that reveals a role of hinge glycans in modulating spike bending. We show that glycosylation at N1242 at the upper portion of the stalk is responsible for the extensive orientational freedom of the spike crown. Subsequent infectivity assays implicated involvement of N1242-glyan in virus entry. Our results suggest a potential therapeutic target site for HCoV-NL63. Structural insights into the modulation of coronavirus spike tilting and infectivity by hinge glycans.,Chmielewski D, Wilson EA, Pintilie G, Zhao P, Chen M, Schmid MF, Simmons G, Wells L, Jin J, Singharoy A, Chiu W Nat Commun. 2023 Nov 7;14(1):7175. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42836-9. PMID:37935678[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. References
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