›› 2016, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (1): 1-7.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2016.01.001

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Subcellular Localization Analysis and Function Prediction of BTV New Type NS4 Protein

LV Shuang, YANG Tao, SUN En-cheng, XU Qing-yuan, ZHANG Ji-kai, WU Dong-lai   

  1. Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health, Ministry of Agriculture, State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Harbin 150001, China
  • Received:2015-06-16 Online:2016-01-20 Published:2016-01-23

Abstract: Bluetongue virus(BTV) could code four non-structural proteins(NS1 to NS4), in which NS4 was a novel one.To explore the function of NS4 protein of BTV, bioinformatics was firstly used to analyze the structure characteristics and possible function motifs of NS4 protein, the results showed that a basic area at the N-terminal α-coil contained a nuclear localization signal(NLS) and a leucine zipper area at the C-terminal α-coil contained a nuclear export signal(NES).To further confirm the subcellular localization of NS4 protein, the full-length and mutant NS4 lacking NLS or NES were expressed fusing with enhanced green fluorescence protein(EGFP).The results showed that NS4 recombinant protein lacking NLS was dispersed in the cytoplasm, while NS4 was located in the nucleus when NES was missing, which suggested that NS4 protein might have nuclear-cytoplasm shuttling process.Additionally, 3D homology modeling showed that NS4 protein was similar to transcription factors CCAAT enhancer binding protein beta(C/EBPβ) and so on.So we speculated that NS4 protein was a transcription regulatory protein interacting with DNA or other transcription factors.In conclusion, this study provided new clues and ideas for function research of NS4 protein, and filled the gap of basic research areas of BTV.

Key words: bluetongue virus(BTV); non-structural protein 4(NS4); subcellular localization; homology modeling

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