Distinct DNA exit and packaging portals in the virus Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus.

ABSTRACT: Icosahedral double-stranded DNA viruses use a single portal for genome delivery and packaging. The extensive structural similarity revealed by such portals in diverse viruses, as well as their invariable positioning at a unique icosahedral vertex, led to the consensus that a particular, highly conserved vertex-portal architecture is essential for viral DNA translocations. Here we present an exception to this paradigm by demonstrating that genome delivery and packaging in the virus Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus occur through two distinct portals. By using high-resolution techniques, including electron tomography and cryo-scanning electron microscopy, we show that Mimivirus genome delivery entails a large-scale conformational change of the capsid, whereby five icosahedral faces open up. T

SUBMITTER: Zauberman N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2430901 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature