Four-component protein nanocages designed by programmed symmetry breaking.

ABSTRACT: Four, eight or twenty C3 symmetric protein trimers can be arranged with tetrahedral, octahedral or icosahedral point group symmetry to generate closed cage-like structures^1,2. Viruses access more complex higher triangulation number icosahedral architectures by breaking perfect point group symmetry^3-9, but nature appears not to have explored similar symmetry breaking for tetrahedral or octahedral symmetries. Here we describe a general design strategy for building higher triangulation number architectures starting from regular polyhedra through pseudosymmetrization of trimeric building blocks. Electron microscopy confirms the structures of T = 4 cages with 48 (tetrahedral), 96 (octahedral) and 240 (icosahedral) subunits, each with 4 distinct chains and 6 different prote

SUBMITTER: Lee S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11821509 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature