Foldit

1438: Unsolved De-novo Freestyle 118

Closed since over 8 years ago

Summary

Created: September 16, 2017
Expires: October 30, 2017 at 23:00 UTC
Max points: 100

Description

Chikungunya (CHIK-un-goon-ya) virus (also known as CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that has spread around the world and is currently infecting people in about 60 countries globally. CHIKV is rarely fatal, but causes severe joint pain for months to years that can debilitate affected patients for long periods of time. There are currently no known drugs to treat CHIKV infection, primarily due to a lack of understanding of the structure of CHIKV proteins involved in viral genome replication. The Geiss lab has worked on developing drug targeting the membrane bound CHIKV nsP1 protein, which is the anchor for the viral genome replication complex on cellular membranes and a multifunctional enzyme that forms a 5’ RNA cap structure on the end of the CHIKV RNA genome. Solving the structure of the CHIKV nsP1 protein would provide critical information for designing drugs that inhibit nsP1 function and abort viral genome replication.

The structure of this protein is still unknown. Secondary structure predictions (from PSIPRED) are marked on the starting structure, and provide clues about where the protein might form helices and sheets!

Note: Since the protein is huge for Foldit, we have divided the protein into two puzzles. This is the second puzzle.

Sequence:

FHLKGKLSFTCRCDTVVSCEGYVVKRITMSPGLYGKTTGYAVTHHADGFLMCKTTDTVDGERVSFSVCTYVPATICDQMTGILATEVTPEDAQKLLVGLNQRIVVNGRTQRNTNTMKNYLLPVVAQAFSKWAKECRKDMEDEKLLGVRERTLTCCCLWAFKKQKTHTVYKRPDTQSIQKVQAEFDSFVVPSLWSSGLSIPLRTRIKWLLSKVPKTDLIPYSGDAREARDAEKEAEEEREAELTREALPPLQAAQEDVQVEIDVEQLEDRAG