Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Seeing the Portal in Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 B Capsids

2010; American Society for Microbiology; Volume: 85; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1128/jvi.01663-10

1098-5514

Ryan H. Rochat, X. Liu, Kazuyoshi Murata, Kuniaki Nagayama, Frazer J. Rixon, Wah Chiu,

Toxoplasma gondii Research Studies

Resolving the nonicosahedral components in large icosahedral viruses remains a technical challenge in structural virology. We have used the emerging technique of Zernike phase-contrast electron cryomicroscopy to enhance the image contrast of ice-embedded herpes simplex virus type 1 capsids. Image reconstruction enabled us to retrieve the structure of the unique portal vertex in the context of the icosahedral capsid and, for the first time, show the subunit organization of a portal in a virus infecting eukaryotes. Our map unequivocally resolves the 12-subunit portal situated beneath one of the pentameric vertices, thus removing uncertainty over the location and stoichiometry of the herpesvirus portal.