Elucidation of the viral disassembly switch of tobacco mosaic virus.

ABSTRACT: Stable capsid structures of viruses protect viral RNA while they also require controlled disassembly for releasing the viral genome in the host cell. A detailed understanding of viral disassembly processes and the involved structural switches is still lacking. This process has been extensively studied using tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), and carboxylate interactions are assumed to play a critical part in this process. Here, we present two cryo-EM structures of the helical TMV assembly at 2.0 and 1.9 Å resolution in conditions of high Ca²⁺ concentration at low pH and in water. Based on our atomic models, we identify the conformational details of the disassembly switch mechanism: In high Ca²⁺ /acidic pH environment, the virion is stabilized between neighboring subunits thr

SUBMITTER: Weis F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6831999 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature