Conserved eukaryotic fusogens can fuse viral envelopes to cells.

The hallmarks of cell-cell fusion.

Cell-cell fusion is essential for fertilization and organ development. Dedicated proteins known as fusogens are responsible for mediating membrane fusion. However, until recently, these proteins either remained unidentified or were poorly understood at the mechanistic level. Here, we review how fusogens surmount multiple energy barriers to mediate cell-cell fusion. We describe how early prepara...

SnapShot: Viral and Eukaryotic Protein Fusogens

HSP Roles as Biomarkers and Antigens in Bacterial and Viral Infections

Diagnosis of infectious diseases remains an important issue in medical science. Identification of biomarkers can be used to predict early infections. Recently, heat shock proteins (HSPs) have been known as the conserved compounds expressed under stress conditions in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems. These proteins act as molecular chaperones. Several studies showed the increased levels o...

Structure-Function Studies Link Class II Viral Fusogens with the Ancestral Gamete Fusion Protein HAP2

The conserved transmembrane protein, HAP2/GCS1, has been linked to fertility in a wide range of taxa and is hypothesized to be an ancient gamete fusogen. Using template-based structural homology modeling, we now show that the ectodomain of HAP2 orthologs from Tetrahymena thermophila and other species adopt a protein fold remarkably similar to the dengue virus E glycoprotein and related class II...

Coxsackievirus B3 protease 3C induces cell death in eukaryotic cells

Abstract: Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is the most common agent known to cause viral myocarditis. The viral genome encodes a single polyprotein that is cleaved to produce several proteins by virally encoded proteases. Most of this proteolytic processing is catalyzed by a cysteine protease called 3C. The 3C protease plays major role in viral replication and cellular damage. To understand the mecha...