Structures of virus-like capsids formed by the Drosophila neuronal Arc proteins.

Simon Erlendsson, Dustin R Morado, Harrison B Cullen, Cedric Feschotte, Jason D Shepherd, John A G Briggs

Nature neuroscience 2020 Feb

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Arc, a neuronal gene that is critical for synaptic plasticity, originated through the domestication of retrotransposon Gag genes and mediates intercellular messenger RNA transfer. We report high-resolution structures of retrovirus-like capsids formed by Drosophila dArc1 and dArc2 that have surface spikes and putative internal RNA-binding domains. These data demonstrate that virus-like capsid-forming properties of Arc are evolutionarily conserved and provide a structural basis for understanding their function in intercellular communication.

Citation

Simon Erlendsson, Dustin R Morado, Harrison B Cullen, Cedric Feschotte, Jason D Shepherd, John A G Briggs. Structures of virus-like capsids formed by the Drosophila neuronal Arc proteins. Nature neuroscience. 2020 Feb;23(2):172-175