Regions of importance for interaction of puumala virus nucleocapsid subunits

Puumala virus (PUUV) is a hantavirus that causes a mild form of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in northern and central Europe, and in large parts of Russia. The nucleocapsid (N) protein encoded by hantaviruses plays an important role in the life-cycle of these viruses, and one important function for the N-protein is to oligomerize, surround and protect the viral RNAs. We have identified amino- and carboxy-terminal regions involved in PUUV N–N interactions, which comprise amino acids 100–120 and 330–405. Our findings strengthen the hypothesis that the amino-terminus of the N-protein of hantaviruses holds a more regulatory function regarding N–N interactions, while conserved residues in the carboxy-terminal region, F335 together with F336 and W392, in concert with Y388 and/or F400 seems to play a more critical role in the PUUV N–N formation. This study provides evidence that the amino-terminal regions involved in the N–N interaction of Puumala virus are similar to those reported for Seoul virus (SEOV) and to some extent Hantaan virus (HTNV), even though the identity between PUUV N and SEOV/HTNV N is markedly lower than between PUUV N and Tula virus (TULV) N or Sin Nombre virus (SNV) N.