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Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Structure of HIV-1 Capsid Assemblies by Cryo-electron Microscopy and Iterative Helical Real-space Reconstruction
Published on: August 9, 2011
Intrinsic disorder in the dynamic evolution of structure, stability, and flexibility of potyviral VLP assemblies: A
Luis F Pacios1, Flora Sánchez2, Fernando Ponz2
1Departamento de Biotecnología-Biología Vegetal, ETSIAAB, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28040 Madrid, Spain; Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) - Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA/CSIC), Campus de Montegancedo UPM, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
An all-atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) study was applied to three viral nanoparticles (VLPs) of Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), a potyvirus: the particles genetically functionalized with two peptides, VIP (human vasoactive intestinal peptide) and VEGFR (peptide derived from the human receptor 3 of the vascular endothelial growth factor), and the non-functionalized VLP. Previous experimental results showed that VIP-VLP was the only construct of the three that was not viable. VLPs subjected to our MD study were modeled by four complete turns of the particle involving 35 subunits of the coat protein (CP). The MD simulations showed differences in structures and interaction energies associated to the crucial contribution of the disordered N-terminal arms of CP to the global stability of the particle. These differences suggested an overall stability greater in VEGFR-VLP and smaller in VIP-VLP as compared to the unfunctionalized VLP. Our novel MD study of potyviral VLPs revealed essential clues about structure and interactions of these assembled protein particles and suggests that the computational prediction of the viability of VLPs can be a valuable contribution in the field of viral nanobiotechnology.
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