Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Flu BM2 structure and function

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 16, pages 1207–1209 (2009)Cite this article

Flu viruses package essential functions into a small integral membrane protein known as M2. Such small membrane proteins represent major challenges for structural biology. A new study presented in this issue details the structure and functions of the influenza B M2 protein through the use of functional domain–specific solution NMR spectroscopy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Two structural and functional domains of BM2 (ref. 2) in a space-filling view of only the side chains, to emphasize the polar and titratable groups.
Figure 2: Structures of the M2 proton channel domain from influenza A and influenza B.

References

  1. Mould, J.A. et al. Dev. Cell 5, 175–184 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wang, J., Pielak, R.M., McClintock, M.A. & Chou, J.J. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 16, 1267–1271 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Pinto, L.H. & Lamb, R.A. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 5, 629–632 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Busath, D.D. Advan. Planar Lipid Bilayers & Liposomes 10, 161–201 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tobler, K., Kelly, M.L., Pinto, L.H. & Lamb, R.A. J. Virol. 73, 9695–9701 (1999).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Park, E.K., Castrucci, M.R., Portner, A. & Kawaoka, Y. J. Virol. 72, 2449–2455 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Ohigashi, Y. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 18775–18779 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Tian, C., Gao, P.F., Pinto, L.H., Lamb, R.A. & Cross, T.A. Protein Sci. 12, 2597–2605 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ma, C. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 283, 15921–15931 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Chen, B.J., Leser, G.P., Jackson, D. & Lamb, R.A. J. Virol. 82, 10059–10070 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Yi, M., Cross, T.A. & Zhou, H.X. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 13311–13316 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Bogdanov, M., Heacock, P.N. & Dowhan, W. EMBO J. 21, 2107–2116 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Nishimura, K., Kim, S., Zhang, L. & Cross, T.A. Biochemistry 41, 13170–13177 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Stouffer, A.L. et al. Nature 451, 596–599 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Schnell, J.R. & Chou, J.J. Nature 451, 591–595 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Hu, J. et al. Biophys. J. 92, 4335–4343 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Cady, S.D., Mishanina, T.V. & Hong, M. J. Mol. Biol. 385, 1127–1141 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank H.-X. Zhou for helpful discussions. Research in the Cross lab on membrane proteins is supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (R01 AI-023007, R01 AI-073891 and P01 AI-074805), and the spectroscopy is conducted at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory supported by Cooperative Agreement 0654118 though the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Timothy A. Cross is at the National High Magnetic Field Lab and at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.,

    Timothy A Cross

Authors
  1. Timothy A Cross
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy A Cross.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cross, T. Flu BM2 structure and function. Nat Struct Mol Biol 16, 1207–1209 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1209-1207

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1209-1207

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing