Viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases are considered to be low-fidelity enzymes, providing high mutation rates that allow for the rapid adaptation of RNA viruses to different host cell environments. Fidelity is tuned to provide the proper balance of virus replication rates, pathogenesis, and tissue tropism needed for virus growth. Using our structures of picornaviral polymerase-RNA elongation complexes, we have previously engineered more than a dozen coxsackievirus B3 polymerase mutations that significantly altered virus replication rates and in vivo fidelity and also provided a set of secondary adaptation mutations after tissue culture passage. Here we report a biochemical analysis of these mutations based on rapid stopped-flow kinetics to determine elongation rates and nucleotide discrimination factors. The data show a spatial separation of fidelity and replication rate effects within the polymerase structure. Mutations in the palm domain have the greatest effects on in vitro nucleotide discrimination, and these effects are strongly correlated with elongation rates and in vivo mutation frequencies, with faster polymerases having lower fidelity. Mutations located at the top of the finger domain, on the other hand, primarily affect elongation rates and have relatively minor effects on fidelity. Similar modulation effects are seen in poliovirus polymerase, an inherently lower-fidelity enzyme where analogous mutations increase nucleotide discrimination. These findings further our understanding of viral RNAdependent RNA polymerase structure-function relationships and suggest that positive-strand RNA viruses retain a unique palm domain-based active-site closure mechanism to fine-tune replication fidelity. IMPORTANCEPositive-strand RNA viruses represent a major class of human and animal pathogens with significant health and economic impacts. These viruses replicate by using a virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase enzyme that has low fidelity, generating many mutations that allow the rapid adaptation of these viruses to different tissue types and host cells. In this work, we use a structure-based approach to engineer mutations in viral polymerases and study their effects on in vitro nucleotide discrimination as well as virus growth and genome replication fidelity. These results show that mutation rates can be drastically increased or decreased as a result of single mutations at several key residues in the polymerase palm domain, and this can significantly attenuate virus growth in vivo. These findings provide a pathway for developing live attenuated virus vaccines based on engineering the polymerase to reduce virus fitness. P ositive-strand RNA viruses replicate by using virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs) that provide a direct RNA-to-RNA replication function not found in host cells. The structures of many RdRPs, primarily from picornaviruses, caliciviruses, and flaviviruses, have been solved to reveal a core structure composed of the classic right-hand arrangement of finger, palm, and t...

SUMMARY Eukaryotic transcription and mRNA processing depend upon the coordinated interactions of many proteins, including Spn1 and Spt6, which are conserved across eukaryotes, are essential for viability, and associate with each other in some of their biologically important contexts. Here we report crystal structures of the Spn1 core alone and in complex with the binding determinant of Spt6. Mutating interface residues greatly diminishes binding in vitro and causes strong phenotypes in vivo, including a defect in maintaining repressive chromatin. Overexpression of Spn1 partially suppresses the defects caused by an spt6 mutation affecting the Spn1 interface, indicating that the Spn1-Spt6 interaction is important for managing chromatin. Spt6 binds nucleosomes directly in vitro, and this interaction is blocked by Spn1, providing further mechanistic insight into the function of the interaction. These data thereby reveal the structural and biochemical bases of molecular interactions that function in the maintenance of chromatin structure.

The conserved and essential eukaryotic protein Spt6 functions in transcription elongation, chromatin maintenance, and RNA processing. Spt6 has three characterized functions. It is a histone chaperone capable of reassembling nucleosomes, a central component of transcription elongation complexes, and is required for recruitment of RNA processing factors to elongating RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). Here, we report crystal structures of the 168 kDa Spt6 protein from Saccharomyces cerevisiae that together represent essentially all of the ordered sequence. Our two structures of the ~900 residue core region reveal a series of putative nucleic acid and protein-protein interaction domains that fold into an elongated form that resembles the bacterial protein Tex. The similarity to a bacterial transcription factor suggests that the core domain performs nucleosome-independent activities, and as with Tex we find that Spt6 binds DNA. Unlike Tex, however, the Spt6 S1 domain does not contribute to this activity. Crystal structures of the Spt6 C-terminal region reveal a tandem SH2 domain structure comprised of two closely associated SH2 folds. One of these SH2 folds is cryptic, while the other shares striking structural similarity with metazoan SH2 domains and possesses structural features associated with the ability to bind phosphorylated substrates including phosphotyrosine. Binding studies with phosphopeptides that mimic the RNAPII CTD revealed affinities typical of other RNAPII CTD-binding proteins but did not indicate a specific interaction. Overall, these findings provide a structural foundation for understanding how Spt6 encodes several distinct functions within a single polypeptide chain.

Positive strand RNA viruses replicate via a virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) that uses a unique palm domain active site closure mechanism to establish the canonical two-metal geometry needed for catalysis. This mechanism allows these viruses to evolutionarily fine-tune their replication fidelity to create an appropriate distribution of genetic variants known as a quasispecies. Prior work has shown that mutations in conserved motif A drastically alter RdRP fidelity, which can be either increased or decreased depending on the viral polymerase background. In the work presented here, we extend these studies to motif D, a region that forms the outer edge of the NTP entry channel where it may act as a nucleotide sensor to trigger active site closure. Crystallography, stoppedflow kinetics, quench-flow reactions, and infectious virus studies were used to characterize 15 engineered mutations in coxsackievirus B3 polymerase. Mutations that interfere with the transport of the metal A Mg 2؉ ion into the active site had only minor effects on RdRP function, but the stacking interaction between Phe 364 and Pro 357 , which is absolutely conserved in enteroviral polymerases, was found to be critical for processive elongation and virus growth. Mutating Phe 364 to tryptophan resulted in a genetically stable high fidelity virus variant with significantly reduced pathogenesis in mice. The data further illustrate the importance of the palm domain movement for RdRP active site closure and demonstrate that protein engineering can be used to alter viral polymerase function and attenuate virus growth and pathogenesis.The RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs) 2 from positive strand RNA viruses close their active sites for catalysis via a subtle NTP-induced conformational change within conserved motifs A and C (1). This palm domain-based closure mechanism differs from what is observed in other classes of replicative polymerases where the palm is fully structured prior to NTP binding, and the nascent base pair is delivered into the active site for catalysis via molecular motions originating in the finger domain (2, 3). Despite these different molecular motions, the structural end points are essentially equivalent, and the RdRPs retain the highly conserved polymerase active site geometry with aspartate residues and a magnesium-catalyzed twometal reaction mechanism (4, 5). The origin of the palm-based movement in the viral RdRPs is likely the conserved molecular contact between the finger and thumb domains that stabilizes the protein structure at the expense of reducing finger domain flexibility (6).One key characteristic of the viral RdRPs is their relatively low replication fidelity with mutation frequencies of 10 Ϫ4 -10 Ϫ5 that result in a heterogeneous virus population often referred to as a quasispecies (7,8). The population consensus sequence defines a particular virus and strain, but closer inspection of individual genomes reveals that they each contain a few random point mutations relative to the consensus. This poo...

Actin-capping protein is a key component of the actin cytoskeleton at sites of clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Farrell et al. show that a newly discovered component of the endocytic machinery belongs to the dynein light chain family and regulates the recruitment of actin-capping protein in a dynein motor–independent manner.