The mimivirus R355 gene product: preliminary crystallographic analysis of a putative ubiquitin-like protein-specific protease

The complete genome sequence of the largest known double-stranded DNA virus, mimivirus, reveals the presence of a gene (denoted R355) that potentially encodes a cysteine protease that is expressed late (after 6 h) in the infectious cycle of the virus. In order to verify a sequence-based functional prediction and understand its role during the infectious process, the R355 protein was produced to assay its proteolytic activity and solve its three-dimensional structure. Here, the preliminary crystallographic analysis of the recombinant viral protein is reported. The crystals belonged to the orthorhombic space group P2₁2₁2₁, with a monomer in the asymmetric unit. A MAD data set was used for preliminary phasing using the selenium signal from a selenomethionine-substituted protein crystal.