EF1A interacting with nucleocapsid protein of transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus and plays a role in virus replication

•Interaction between TGEV N protein and EF1A is found in vitro.•Interaction between TGEV N protein and EF1A is found in vivo.•EF1A plays a role in TGEV replication.•Interaction between TGEV N protein and EF1A was firstly found in this study.

Transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (TGEV) is an enteropathogenic coronavirus that causes diarrhea in pigs, which is correlated with high morbidity and mortality in suckling piglets. Using the method of GST pull-down with the nucleocapsid (N), N protein was found to interact with swine testes (ST) cells elongation factor 1-alpha (EF1A), an essential component of the translational machinery with an important role in cells. In vitro and in virus-infected cells interaction was then confirmed by co-precipitation. Knockdown of EF1A impairs N protein proliferation and TGEV replication in host cell. It was demonstrated that EF1A plays a role in TGEV replication. The present study thus provides a protein-related information that should be useful for underlying mechanism of coronavirus replication.