{"doi":"10.1126/sciadv.adg6473","title":"A conserved oligomerization domain in the disordered linker of coronavirus nucleocapsid proteins","abstract":"The nucleocapsid (N-)protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a key role in viral assembly and scaffolding of the viral RNA. It promotes liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), forming dense droplets that support the assembly of ribonucleoprotein particles with as-of-yet unknown macromolecular architecture. Combining biophysical experiments, molecular dynamics simulations, and analysis of the mutational landscape, we describe a heretofore unknown oligomerization site that contributes to LLPS, is required for the assembly of higher-order protein-nucleic acid complexes, and is coupled to large-scale conformational changes of N-protein upon nucleic acid binding. The self-association interface is located in a leucine-rich sequence of the intrinsically disordered linker between N-protein folded domains and formed by transient helices assembling into trimeric coiled-coils. Critical residues stabilizing hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions between adjacent helices are highly protected against mutations in viable SARS-CoV-2 genomes, and the oligomerization motif is conserved across related coronaviruses, thus presenting a target for antiviral therapeutics.","journal":"Science Advances","year":2023,"id":318895,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":60,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9656,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":313756,"name":"Di Wu","orcid":"0000-0002-3440-1860","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":439444,"name":"Sergio A. Hassan","orcid":"0000-0003-3319-078X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398409,"name":"Ai Nguyen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":246601,"name":"Jiji Chen","orcid":"0000-0002-4426-3035","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":313757,"name":"Grzegorz Piszczek","orcid":"0000-0002-5270-3678","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":396759,"name":"Peter Schuck","orcid":"0000-0002-8859-6966","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":396757,"name":"Huaying Zhao","orcid":"0000-0002-8827-6639","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":79,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:07:06.454099Z","pmid":"37018390","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}