SNAP output for PDB entry 2wyy [SNAP web server]

PDB-id

2wyy; SNAP-derived features in text and JSON formats; DNAproDB

Class

virus

Method

cryo-EM (10.6 Å)

Summary

Cryoem model of the vesicular stomatitis virus

Reference

Ge P, Tsao J, Schein S, Green TJ, Luo M, Zhou ZH (2010): "Cryo-Em Model of the Bullet-Shaped Vesicular Stomatitis Virus." Science, 327, 689. doi: 10.1126/SCIENCE.1181766.

Abstract

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a bullet-shaped rhabdovirus and a model system of negative-strand RNA viruses. Through direct visualization by means of cryo-electron microscopy, we show that each virion contains two nested, left-handed helices: an outer helix of matrix protein M and an inner helix of nucleoprotein N and RNA. M has a hub domain with four contact sites that link to neighboring M and N subunits, providing rigidity by clamping adjacent turns of the nucleocapsid. Side-by-side interactions between neighboring N subunits are critical for the nucleocapsid to form a bullet shape, and structure-based mutagenesis results support this description. Together, our data suggest a mechanism of VSV assembly in which the nucleocapsid spirals from the tip to become the helical trunk, both subsequently framed and rigidified by the M layer.