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X-Ray Crystallography of Viruses

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Structure and Physics of Viruses

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

Abstract

For about 30 years X-ray crystallography has been by far the most powerful approach for determining virus structures at close to atomic resolutions. Information provided by these studies has deeply and extensively enriched and shaped our vision of the virus world. In turn, the ever increasing complexity and size of the virus structures being investigated have constituted a major driving force for methodological and conceptual developments in X-ray macromolecular crystallography. Landmarks of new virus structures determinations, such as the ones from the first animal viruses or from the first membrane-containing viruses, have often been associated to methodological breakthroughs in X-ray crystallography. In this chapter we present the common ground of proteins and virus crystallography with an emphasis in the peculiarities of virus studies. For example, the solution of the phase problem, a central issue in X-ray diffraction, has benefited enormously from the presence of non-crystallographic symmetry in virus crystals.

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Abbreviations

Ad:

Adenovirus

Ad5:

Adenovirus type 5

BTV:

Bluetongue virus

EM:

Electron microscopy

HRV2/HRV14:

Human rhinovirus serotypes 2 or 14

MR:

Molecular replacement

SBMV:

Southern bean mosaic virus

STNV:

Satellite tobacco necrosis virus

TBSV:

Tomato bushy stunt virus

VLP:

Virus-like particle

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Acknowledgements

We would like to dedicate this chapter to Prof. M.G. Rossmann for his pioneering and continuous ground-breaking results in structural virology. This work was supported by grants from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad to N.V. (BIO2011-24333) and to I.F. (BFU2009-09268).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Biología Molecular de Barcelona (CSIC), Parc Científic de Barcelona, c/Baldiri i Reixac 10, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Nuria Verdaguer & Ignacio Fita

  2. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CSIC), c/Darwin 3, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Damià Garriga

Authors
  1. Nuria Verdaguer
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  2. Damià Garriga
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  3. Ignacio Fita
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nuria Verdaguer or Ignacio Fita .

Editor information

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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Verdaguer, N., Garriga, D., Fita, I. (2013). X-Ray Crystallography 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_4

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