{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T13:15:33Z","timestamp":1760188533971,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,7]],"date-time":"2019-05-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1557187200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100006369","name":"George Mason University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Multidisciplinary Research seed funds, Provost Office"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Multidisciplinary Research seed funds, Provost Office"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100006369","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>A tertiary structure governs, to a great extent, the biological activity of a protein in the living cell and is consequently a central focus of numerous studies aiming to shed light on cellular processes central to human health. Here, we aim to elucidate the structure of the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) L protein using a combination of in silico techniques. Due to its large size and multiple domains, elucidation of the tertiary structure of the L protein has so far challenged both dry and wet laboratories. In this work, we leverage complementary perspectives and tools from the computational-molecular-biology and bioinformatics domains for constructing, refining, and evaluating several atomistic structural models of the L protein that are physically realistic. All computed models have very flexible termini of about 200 amino acids each, and a high proportion of helical regions. Properties such as potential energy, radius of gyration, hydrodynamics radius, flexibility coefficient, and solvent-accessible surface are reported. Structural characterization of the L protein enables our laboratories to better understand viral replication and transcription via further studies of L protein-mediated protein\u2013protein interactions. While results presented a focus on the RVFV L protein, the following workflow is a more general modeling protocol for discovering the tertiary structure of multidomain proteins consisting of thousands of amino acids.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules24091768","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,9]],"date-time":"2019-05-09T08:19:59Z","timestamp":1557389999000},"page":"1768","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Modeling the Tertiary Structure of the Rift Valley Fever Virus L Protein"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2816-5726","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gideon K.","family":"Gogovi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Simulation and Modeling, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 6A12, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA"},{"name":"Department of Computational and Data Sciences, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 6A12, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fahad","family":"Almsned","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, 10900 University Blvd., MSN 5B3, Manassas, VA 20110, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7298-4796","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicole","family":"Bracci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, 10900 University Blvd., MSN 5B3, Manassas, VA 20110, USA"},{"name":"National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, George Mason University, 10650 Pyramid Place, MS 1J5, Manassas, VA 20110, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8036-7213","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kylene","family":"Kehn-Hall","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, 10900 University Blvd., MSN 5B3, Manassas, VA 20110, USA"},{"name":"National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, George Mason University, 10650 Pyramid Place, MS 1J5, Manassas, VA 20110, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amarda","family":"Shehu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Simulation and Modeling, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 6A12, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA"},{"name":"School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, 10900 University Blvd., MSN 5B3, Manassas, VA 20110, USA"},{"name":"Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 4A5, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA"},{"name":"Department of Bioengineering, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 1J7, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3259-1573","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Estela","family":"Blaisten-Barojas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Simulation and Modeling, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 6A12, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA"},{"name":"Department of Computational and Data Sciences, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 6A12, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1429","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1158818","article-title":"How do proteins interact?","volume":"320","author":"Bohr","year":"2008","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rangwala, H., and Karypis, G. 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