Mechanical Capsid Maturation Facilitates the Resolution of Conflicting Requirements for Herpesvirus Assembly.

ABSTRACT: Most viruses undergo a maturation process from a weakly self-assembled, noninfectious particle to a stable, infectious virion. For herpesviruses, this maturation process resolves several conflicting requirements: (i) assembly must be driven by weak, reversible interactions between viral particle subunits to reduce errors and minimize the energy of self-assembly, and (ii) the viral particle must be stable enough to withstand tens of atmospheres of DNA pressure resulting from its strong confinement in the capsid. With herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) as a prototype of human herpesviruses, we demonstrated that this mechanical capsid maturation is mainly facilitated through capsid binding auxiliary protein UL25, orthologs of which are present in all herpesviruses. Through genetic manipulation of

SUBMITTER: Evilevitch A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8865421 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature