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The Basic Architecture of Viruses

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Structure and Physics of Viruses

Part of the book series: Subcellular Biochemistry ((SCBI,volume 68))

Abstract

Viruses are elegant macromolecular assemblies and constitute a paradigm of the economy of genomic resources; they must use simple general principles and a very limited number of viral components to complete their life cycles successfully. Viruses need only one or a few different capsid structural subunits to build an infectious particle, which is made possible because of two reasons: extensive use of symmetry and built-in conformational flexibility. Although viruses from the numerous virus families come in many shapes and sizes, two major types of symmetric assemblies are found: icosahedral and helical particles. The enormous diversity of virus structures might be derived from one or a limited number of basic schemes that has become more complex by consecutive incorporation of structural elements. The intrinsic structural polymorphism of the viral proteins and other observations indicate that capsids are dynamic structures. Study of virus structures is required to understand structure-function relationships in viruses, including those related to morphogenesis and antigenicity. These structural foundations can be extended to other macromolecular complexes that control many fundamental processes in biology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Also especially recommended for further reading are references [5, 6, 9, 21, 30, 41] listed above.

Abbreviations

3D:

Three-dimensional

CP:

Capsid protein

cryo-EM:

Cryo-electron microscopy

cryo-ET:

Cryo-electron tomography

ds:

Double-stranded

ss:

Single-stranded

T:

Triangulation number

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Acknowledgements

We thank Daniel Luque for preparing several figures used in this chapter and Catherine Mark for editorial help. This work was supported by grants BFU2011-25902 (to JRC) and BFU2011-29038 (to JLC) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Macromolecular Structure, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CSIC), c/Darwin 3, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    José R. Castón & José L. Carrascosa

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  1. José R. Castón
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  2. José L. Carrascosa
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Correspondence to José R. Castón .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. "Severo Ochoa" (CSIC_UAM), And Dept. of Molecular Biology, Centro de Biología Molecular, Cantoblanco, Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Mauricio G. Mateu

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Castón, J.R., Carrascosa, J.L. (2013). The Basic Architecture of Viruses. In: Mateu, M. (eds) Structure and Physics of Viruses. Subcellular Biochemistry, vol 68. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6552-8_2

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