Expression and purification of Z protein from Junín virus.

GOÑI, S.E.; BORIO, C.S.; ROMANO CHERÑAC, F.; ROTA, R.P.; PILLOFF, M.G.; ISERTE, J.A.; TORTORICI, M.A.; STEPHAN, B.I.; BILEN, M.F.; GHIRINGHELLI, P.D.; LOZANO, M.E.

JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICINE AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

HINDAWI PUBLISHING CORPORATION

Lugar: New York, NY; Año: 2010

1110-7243

Arenaviridae comprises 23 recognized virus species with a bipartite ssRNA genome and an ambisense coding strategy. The virions are enveloped and include nonequimolar amounts of each genomic RNA species, designated L and S, coding for four ORFs (N, GPC, L, and Z). The arenavirus Jun´ın (JUNV) is the etiological agent of Argentine Hemorrhagic Fever, an acute disease with high mortality rate. It has been proposed that Z is the functional counterpart of the matrix proteins found in other negative-stranded enveloped RNA viruses. Here we report the optimized expression of a synthetic gene of Z protein, using three expresión systems (two bacterial and a baculoviral one). One of these recombinant proteins was used to generate antibodies. A bioinformatic analysis was made where Z was subdivided into three domains. The data presented contributes methodologies for Z recombinant production and provides the basis for the development of new experiments to test its function.