SOLUTION STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE BIOACTIVE RETROVIRAL M-DOMAIN FROM ROUS-SARCOMA VIRUS

A biologically active construct of the retroviral M domain from the av ian Rous sarcoma virus is defined and its solution structure described . This M domain is fully active in budding and infectivity without myr istylation. In spite of a sequence homology level that suggests no rel ationship among M domains and the family of matrix proteins in mammali an retroviruses, the conserved structural elements of a central core a llow an M domain sequence motif to be described for all retroviruses. The surface of the M domain has a highly clustered positive patch comp rised of sequentially distant residues. An analysis of the backbone dy namics, incorporating rotational anisotropy, is used to estimate the t hermodynamics of proposed domain oligomerization. (C) 1998 Academic Pr ess Limited.