A general synthetic method toward uridylylated picornavirus VPg proteins.

Small proteins called viral protein genome-linked (VPg), attached to the 5'-end of the viral RNA genome are found as common structure in the large family of picornaviruses. The replication of these viruses is primed by this VPg protein linked to a single uridylyl residue. We report a general procedure to obtain such nucleoproteins employing a pre-uridylylated tyrosine building block in an on-line solid phase-based approach.