MeV M

Measles is an acute contagious disease characterized by high fever and a maculopapular rash. Measles virus (MV), the causative agent, is an enveloped virus classified as a member of the genus Morbillivirus in the family Paramyxoviridae. The virus has a nonsegmented negative-sense RNA genome, which contains six genes encoding single structural proteins, designated the nucleocapsid (N), phospho-(P), matrix (M), fusion (F), hemagglutinin (H), and large (L) proteins. The M protein plays a key role in virus assembly. Several lines of evidence indicate that the M protein associates with the inner surface of the plasma membrane as well as the cytoplasmic tails of the H and F glycoproteins. The M protein has also been shown to interact with the RNP complex although its binding partner remains unknown. The M protein modulates viral RNA synthesis, and a small interfering RNA against M mRNA was reported to increase MV transcription levels in the small interfering RNA-treated cells.