Coronavirus small envelope protein E has two known biological functions: it
plays a pivotal role in virus envelope formation, and the murine coronavir
us E protein induces apoptosis in E protein-expressing cultured cells. The
E protein is an integral membrane protein. Its C-terminal region extends cy
toplasmically in the infected cell and in the virion toward the interior. T
he N-terminal two-thirds of the E protein is hydrophobic and lies buried wi
thin the membrane, but its orientation in the lipid membrane is not known.
Immunofluorescent analyses of cells expressing biologically active murine c
oronavirus E protein with a hydrophilic short epitope tag at the N-terminus
showed that the epitope tag was exposed cytoplasmically. Immunoprecipitati
on analyses of the purified microsomal membrane vesicles that contain the s
ame tagged E protein revealed the N-terminal epitope tag outside the micros
omal membrane vesicles. These analyses demonstrated that the epitope tag at
the N-terminus of the E protein was exposed cytoplasmically. Our data were
consistent with an E protein topology model, in which the N-terminal two-t
hirds of the transmembrane domain spans the lipid bilayer twice, exposing t
he C-terminal region to the cytoplasm or virion interior. (C) 2001 Academic
Press.