Preliminary crystallographic analysis of avian infectious bronchitis virus main protease

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is the prototype of the genus Coronavirus. It causes a highly contagious disease which affects the respiratory, reproductive, neurological and renal systems of chickens, resulting great economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. The coronavirus (CoV) main protease (M(pro)), which plays a pivotal role in viral gene expression and replication through a highly complex cascade involving the proteolytic processing of replicase polyproteins, is an attractive target for antiviral drug design. In this study, IBV M(pro) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Crystals suitable for X-ray crystallography have been obtained using microseeding techniques and belong to space group P6(1)22. X-ray diffraction data were collected in-house to 2.7 A resolution from a single crystal. The unit-cell parameters were a = b = 119.1, c = 270.7 A, alpha = beta = 90, gamma = 120 degrees. Three molecules were predicted to be present in the asymmetric unit from a calculated self-rotation function.