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Structural insight into insect viruses

Nature Structural Biology volume 6, pages 717–719 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

The first structure of an insect picorna-(small RNA-containing) virus is now available. Although there is considerable similarity in the structures of mammalian and insect picornaviruses, there are also remarkable differences, the most noteworthy being associated with the small, internal, functionally essential, VP4 protein.

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Figure 1: Comparison of gene order and capsid structures of various +RNA strand viruses whose RNA genome is read from the 5' to 3' end.
Figure 2: a,b, Domain swapping of the N-terminal arm about the icosahedral two-fold axis in insect and mammalian parvoviruses compared to c,d, domain swapping of the VP2 (green) N-terminal arm in insect and mammalian picornaviruses.
Figure 3: Comparison of the channel along the five-fold axes of a, mammalian and b, insect picornaviruses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Michael G. Rossmann & Yizhi Tao

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  1. Michael G. Rossmann
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  2. Yizhi Tao
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Correspondence to Michael G. Rossmann.

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Rossmann, M., Tao, Y. Structural insight into insect viruses. Nat Struct Mol Biol 6, 717–719 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/11477

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