Ebola and Marburg virus matrix layers are locally ordered assemblies of VP40 dimers
- Vanderbilt University, United States
- EMBL, Germany
- La Jolla Institute of Immunology, United States
- Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
- Scripps Research Institute, United States
- La Jolla Institute for Immunology, United States
- MRC-LMB, United Kingdom
Abstract
Filoviruses such as Ebola and Marburg virus bud from the host membrane as enveloped virions. This process is achieved by the matrix protein VP40. When expressed alone, VP40 induces budding of filamentous virus-like particles, suggesting that localization to the plasma membrane, oligomerization into a matrix layer, and generation of membrane curvature are intrinsic properties of VP40. There has been no direct information on the structure of VP40 matrix layers within viruses or virus-like particles. We present structures of Ebola and Marburg VP40 matrix layers in intact virus-like particles, and within intact Marburg viruses. VP40 dimers assemble extended chains via C-terminal domain interactions. These chains stack to form 2D matrix lattices below the membrane surface. These lattices form a patchwork assembly across the membrane and suggesting that assembly may begin at multiple points. Our observations define the structure and arrangement of the matrix protein layer that mediates formation of filovirus particles.
Data availability
EM maps of VP40 from Ebola NP-VP24-VP35-VP40, VP40, VP40-GP VLPs and Marburg virions and VP40 VLPs were deposited in the EMDB with accession numbers EMD-11660, EMD-11661, EMD-11662, EMD-11663, EMD-11664, respectively. EM map of Ebola GP was deposited as EMD-11665. Crystal structures of eVP40 P62 and eVP40 P6422 were deposited to the PDB with accession numbers 7JZJ and 7JZT, respectively.
Article and author information
Author details
Zachary A Bornholdt
Funding
Medical Research Council (MC_UP_1201/16)
- John AG Briggs
H2020 European Research Council (ERC-CoG-648432)
- John AG Briggs
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Sonderforschungsbereich 1021)
- Stephan Becker
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, Wan 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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Ebola and Marburg virus matrix layers are locally ordered assemblies of VP40 dimers
eLife 9:e59225.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59225
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