Edited by Charles SamuelViperin is an endoplasmic reticulum-associated antiviral responsive protein that is highly up-regulated in eukaryotic cells upon viral infection through both interferon-dependent and independent pathways. Viperin is predicted to be a radical S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) enzyme, but it is unknown whether viperin actually exploits radical SAM chemistry to exert its antiviral activity. We have investigated the interaction of viperin with its most firmly established cellular target, farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPPS). Numerous enveloped viruses utilize cholesterol-rich lipid rafts to bud from the host cell membrane, and it is thought that by inhibiting FPPS activity (and therefore cholesterol synthesis), viperin retards viral budding from infected cells. We demonstrate that, consistent with this hypothesis, overexpression of viperin in human embryonic kidney cells reduces the intracellular rate of accumulation of FPPS but does not inhibit or inactivate FPPS. The endoplasmic reticulum-localizing, N-terminal amphipathic helix of viperin is specifically required for viperin to reduce cellular FPPS levels. However, although viperin reductively cleaves SAM to form 5-deoxyadenosine in a slow, uncoupled reaction characteristic of radical SAM enzymes, this cleavage reaction is independent of FPPS. Furthermore, mutation of key cysteinyl residues ligating the catalytic [Fe 4 S 4 ] cluster in the radical SAM domain, surprisingly, does not abolish the inhibitory activity of viperin against FPPS; indeed, some mutations potentiate viperin activity. These observations imply that viperin does not act as a radical SAM enzyme in regulating FPPS.
Radical S-adenosyl-L-methionine-dependent (SAM)3 enzymes constitute a superfamily of enzymes that use SAM to generate free radicals (1-4). The superfamily is typified by a common CXXXCXXC motif, the cysteinyl residues of which coordinate a [Fe 4 S 4 ] cluster that is essential for radical generation. These enzymes catalyze a remarkably wide range of reactions involving an equally diverse set of substrates (2). For example, radical SAM-dependent enzymes participate in the biosynthesis of herbicides, antibiotics, vitamins, co-factors such as biotin and thiamin, and various other natural products (2, 5-8). They also function in the modification of ribosomal and transfer RNAs (9, 10) and DNA repair (11) and in the post-translational modification of peptides and proteins (12)(13)(14). Sequence analyses indicate that there are potentially thousands of members of the radical SAM superfamily, but to date, relatively few of these enzymes have been isolated and characterized (15, 16). Radical SAM enzymes were until recently thought to be confined to the microbial realm but intriguingly have now been identified in higher aerobic organisms, including plants and animals (3).Central to the mechanism of all radical SAM enzymes is the generation of a highly reactive 5Ј-deoxyadenosyl radical (Ado ⅐ ) (1,4,17). This is accomplished through one-electron reduction of SAM by the [Fe 4...