Echovirus 9 strain barty non-structural protein 2C has NTPase activity

Non-structural protein 2C is known to play a fundamental role in the replication of picornaviruses. Sequence analyses revealed that 2C belongs to a rapidly expanding group of proteins containing a consensus sequence for nucleotide binding (NTB). We report that echovirus 9 polypeptide 2C displays NTPase activity in vitro. In our experiments, several P2 genes were expressed in Escherichia coli as fusion proteins linked to glutathione S-transferase (GST) prior to purification close to homogeneity. In contrast to GST-2B, both GST-2C and GST-2BC showed ATPase as well as GTPase activity indicating that the site for NTB binding and splitting is located in 2C.