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Cryo-EM structures of human monkeypox viral replication complexes with and without DNA duplex

Cell Research volume 33, pages 479–482 (2023)Cite this article

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Dear Editor,

The outbreak of human monkeypox in May 2022 across non-endemic countries is unusual compared to previous reports.1 A recent study indicates that the basic reproduction number (R0) of monkeypox virus (MPXV) is > 1 in populations of men who have sex with men,2 and MPXV is reported to be transmitted via close contact and airborne droplets, suggesting that monkeypox poses a great threat to the global health.

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Fig. 1: Structure of MPXV DNA replication machinery and the potential interactions.

Data availability

The electron density maps and the atomic coordinates for F8–A22–E4 machinery in apo (without DNA), with no visible DNA, and with DNA were deposited in Electron Microscopy Data Bank and Protein Data Bank with accession codes EMD-34684 and 8HDZ, EMD-34927 and 8HOY, and EMD-34929 and 8HPA, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the excellent support from Dr. Yi Zeng and all members of the cryo-EM center and the core facility of Wuhan University. We thank Thomas Wileman (University of East Anglia) for critical reading of the manuscript. We want to express our gratitude to all our team members for their supports and discussions. We thank financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32250710142), and Strategy and Talent Support Program of Wuhan University.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yunxia Xu, Yaqi Wu, Yuanyuan Zhang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Key Laboratory of Combinatorial Biosynthesis and Drug Discovery, State Key Laboratory of Virology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Yunxia Xu, Yaqi Wu, Yuanyuan Zhang, Ruixin Fan, Yaxue Yang, Shimin Zhu, Biao Yang, Zhengyu Zhang & Changjiang Dong

  2. The Cryo-EM Center, Core facility of Wuhan University, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Danyang Li

Authors
  1. Yunxia Xu
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  2. Yaqi Wu
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Contributions

C.D. conceived, coordinated and supervised the study. Y.X., Y.Z., Y.W., R.F. and Y.Y. performed gene cloning, protein expression, purification, and cryo-EM sample preparation. Y.W., D.L., S.Z. and B.Y. performed cryo-EM sample screening and data collection. Z.Z., C.D. and Y.W. conduced data processing and model building. C.D., Z.Z., Y.X. and Y.W. wrote the manuscript. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zhengyu Zhang or Changjiang Dong.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Xu, Y., Wu, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. Cryo-EM structures of human monkeypox viral replication complexes with and without DNA duplex. Cell Res 33, 479–482 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-023-00796-1

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