Structural studies on nucleocapsid proteins of shrimp white spot syndrome virus

Abstract

Shrimp aquaculture, an important industry worldwide, has been unfortunately devastated by the spread of viral pathogens during the last few decades. Shrimp white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is the major pathogen out of the more than 20 reported viral agents causing huge economic losses to the industry worldwide. This project aimed to characterize and elucidate structures of representative proteins covering the nucleocapsid of the shrimp white spot syndrome virus. VP15, which is a major necleocapsid protein, was found to be a non-structural protein after in-vitro purification procedure. However, from the DNA-Protein interaction assay, the protein showed the ability to bind dsDNA. VP24, another supposed major nucleocapsid protein, was highly hydrophobic. A protocol was developed to solubilize and purify this protein. Furthermore, Anti-VP24 was also successfully produced and showed a high specificity.