Liquid-liquid phase separation of nucleocapsid proteins during SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 replication
Bao-An Chau,
Venessa Chen,
Alan W. Cochrane,
Leslie J. Parent,
Andrew J. Mouland
Affiliations
Bao-An Chau
HIV-1 RNA Trafficking Lab, Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
Venessa Chen
HIV-1 RNA Trafficking Lab, Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
Alan W. Cochrane
Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada
Leslie J. Parent
Division of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
Andrew J. Mouland
HIV-1 RNA Trafficking Lab, Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada; Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada; Corresponding author
Summary: The leap of retroviruses and coronaviruses from animal hosts to humans has led to two ongoing pandemics and tens of millions of deaths worldwide. Retrovirus and coronavirus nucleocapsid proteins have been studied extensively as potential drug targets due to their central roles in virus replication, among which is their capacity to bind their respective genomic RNAs for packaging into nascent virions. This review focuses on fundamental studies of these nucleocapsid proteins and how their intrinsic abilities to condense through liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) contribute to viral replication. Therapeutic targeting of these condensates and methodological advances are also described to address future questions on how phase separation contributes to viral replication.
