Asymmetric cryo-EM reconstruction of phage MS2 reveals genome structure in situ

Roman I Koning (), Josue Gomez-Blanco, Inara Akopjana, Javier Vargas, Andris Kazaks, Kaspars Tars, José María Carazo and Abraham J. Koster
Additional contact information
Roman I Koning: Leiden University Medical Center
Josue Gomez-Blanco: Biocomputing Unit, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC)
Inara Akopjana: Biomedical Research and Study Centre
Javier Vargas: Biocomputing Unit, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC)
Andris Kazaks: Biomedical Research and Study Centre
Kaspars Tars: Biomedical Research and Study Centre
José María Carazo: Biocomputing Unit, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC)
Abraham J. Koster: Leiden University Medical Center

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract In single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses, virus capsid assembly and genome packaging are intertwined processes. Using cryo-electron microscopy and single particle analysis we determined the asymmetric virion structure of bacteriophage MS2, which includes 178 copies of the coat protein, a single copy of the A-protein and the RNA genome. This reveals that in situ, the viral RNA genome can adopt a defined conformation. The RNA forms a branched network of stem-loops that almost all allocate near the capsid inner surface, while predominantly binding to coat protein dimers that are located in one-half of the capsid. This suggests that genomic RNA is highly involved in genome packaging and virion assembly.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12524 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12524

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12524

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().