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Visualizing molecular interactions that determine assembly of a bullet-shaped vesicular stomatitis virus particle
- Source :
- Nature Communications. 13
- Publication Year :
- 2022
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022.
-
Abstract
- SUMMARYVesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a negative-strand RNA virus with a non-segmented genome, closely related to rabies virus. Both have characteristic bullet-like shapes. We report the structure of intact, infectious VSV particles determined by cryogenic electron microscopy. By compensating for polymorphism among viral particles with computational classification, we obtained a reconstruction of the shaft (“trunk”) at 3.5 Å resolution, with lower resolution for the rounded tip. The ribonucleoprotein (RNP), genomic RNA complexed with nucleoprotein (N), curls into a dome-like structure with about eight gradually expanding turns before transitioning into the regular helical trunk. Two layers of matrix (M) protein link the RNP with the membrane. Radial inter-layer subunit contacts are fixed within single RNA-N-M1-M2 modules, but flexible lateral and axial interactions allow assembly of polymorphic virions. Together with published structures of recombinant N in various states, our results suggest a mechanism for membrane- coupled self-assembly of VSV and its relatives.
Details
- ISSN :
- 20411723
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Communications
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f5c72711fbf06d35c923fd742e5fb69a