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Rubella capsid protein Rubella virus is an enveloped positive-strand RNA virus of the family Togaviridae. Virions are composed of three structural proteins: a capsid and two membrane-spanning glycoproteins, E2 and E1. During virus assembly, the capsid interacts with genomic RNA to form nucleocapsids. It has been discovered that capsid phosphorylation serves to negatively regulate binding of viral genomic RNA. This may delay the initiation of nucleocapsid assembly until sufficient amounts of virus glycoproteins accumulate at the budding site and/or prevent non-specific binding to cellular RNA when levels of genomic RNA are low. It follows that at a late stage in replication, the capsid may undergo dephosphorylation before nucleocapsid assembly occurs.
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