1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

The near-atomic cryoEM structure of a flexible filamentous plant virus shows homology of its coat protein with nucleoproteins of animal viruses

  1. Xabier Agirrezabala
  2. Eduardo Méndez-López
  3. Gorka Lasso
  4. M Amelia Sánchez-Pina
  5. Miguel Aranda
  6. Mikel Valle  Is a corresponding author
  1. Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences, Spain
  2. Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura, Spain
  3. Columbia University, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11795
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  1. Xabier Agirrezabala
  2. Eduardo Méndez-López
  3. Gorka Lasso
  4. M Amelia Sánchez-Pina
  5. Miguel Aranda
  6. Mikel Valle
(2015)
The near-atomic cryoEM structure of a flexible filamentous plant virus shows homology of its coat protein with nucleoproteins of animal viruses
eLife 4:e11795.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11795
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Abstract

Flexible filamentous viruses include economically important plant pathogens. Their viral particles contain several hundred copies of a helically arrayed coat protein (CP) protecting a (+)ssRNA. We describe here a structure at 3.9 Å resolution, from electron cryomicroscopy, of Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV), a representative of the genus Potexvirus (family Alphaflexiviridae). Our results allow modeling of the CP and its interactions with viral RNA. The overall fold of PepMV CP resembles that of nucleoproteins (NPs) from the genus Phlebovirus (family Bunyaviridae), a group of enveloped (-)ssRNA viruses. The main difference between potexvirus CP and phlebovirus NP is in their C-terminal extensions, which appear to determine the characteristics of the distinct multimeric assemblies- a flexuous, helical rod or a loose ribonucleoprotein (RNP). The homology suggests gene transfer between eukaryotic (+) and (-)ssRNA viruses.

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Author details

  1. Xabier Agirrezabala

    Structural Biology Unit, Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences, Derio, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Eduardo Méndez-López

    Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura, Murcia, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Gorka Lasso

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. M Amelia Sánchez-Pina

    Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura, Murcia, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Miguel Aranda

    Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura, Murcia, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Mikel Valle

    Structural Biology Unit, Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences, Derio, Spain
    For correspondence
    mvalle@cicbiogune.es
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Stephen C Harrison, Harvard Medical School, United States

Version history

  1. Received: September 22, 2015
  2. Accepted: December 15, 2015
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: December 16, 2015 (version 1)
  4. Accepted Manuscript updated: December 17, 2015 (version 2)
  5. Version of Record published: January 25, 2016 (version 3)

Copyright

© 2015, Agirrezabala et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Xabier Agirrezabala
  2. Eduardo Méndez-López
  3. Gorka Lasso
  4. M Amelia Sánchez-Pina
  5. Miguel Aranda
  6. Mikel Valle
(2015)
The near-atomic cryoEM structure of a flexible filamentous plant virus shows homology of its coat protein with nucleoproteins of animal viruses
eLife 4:e11795.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11795

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11795

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