Picornaviruses of two different genera have similar structures

Crystals of Mengo virus were used to collect three-dimensional X-ray diffraction data to 7 A resolution. A self-rotation function showed the precise orientation of the Mengo particles in the crystal unit cell. A cross-rotation function against similar data of cubic rhinovirus crystals showed a peak when the orientations of these two icosahedral viruses were superimposed. This demonstrates similarity of capsid construction between two picornaviruses of different taxonomic genera.