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Plaquing of Herpes Simplex Viruses
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Geometric Defects and Icosahedral Viruses.

Joseph Che-Yen Wang1, Suchetana Mukhopadhyay2, Adam Zlotnick3

  • 1Indiana University Electron Microscopy Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. wangjoe@indiana.edu.

Viruses
|January 5, 2018
PubMed
Summary

Viral geometric defects are not flaws but functional sites that aid in virus assembly, protein interaction, and genome release. Understanding these irregularities is key to studying viral biology.

Keywords:
alphaviruscapsidcryo-electron microscopyhepadnavirusnucleocapsidself-assembly

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Area of Science:

  • Virology
  • Structural Biology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Geometric defects in virus capsids are often overlooked due to symmetry averaging methods in structural determination.
  • These defects, observed in viruses like hepadnaviruses, alphaviruses, flaviviruses, and retroviruses, are common and may have biological significance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose that geometric defects in viruses are not necessarily flaws but can serve crucial biological functions.
  • To highlight the potential roles of these defects in viral assembly, dissociation, and cellular protein interactions.
  • To introduce a classification of viral asymmetry and advocate for their investigation.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature and single-molecule studies on viral assembly and structure.
  • Analysis of structural data from various virus families (e.g., hepadnavirus, alphavirus, flavivirus, retrovirus).
  • Conceptual framework for classifying viral asymmetry (regular, irregular, dynamic).

Main Results:

  • Geometric defects can act as reactive sites, facilitating key viral processes.
  • Asymmetric exposure of internal features due to defects can regulate genome release and intracellular trafficking.
  • Identified three classes of asymmetry: regular, irregular, and dynamic.

Conclusions:

  • Viral geometric defects likely serve important biological functions rather than being mere errors.
  • Advances in electron microscopy enable detailed investigation of these capsid irregularities.
  • Recognizing and studying these defects offers new avenues for understanding viral mechanisms and biology.