Linked Life Data

17330045

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/17330045

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
7131
pubmed:dateCreated
2007-3-1
pubmed:databankReference
pubmed:abstractText
Cypoviruses and baculoviruses are notoriously difficult to eradicate because the virus particles are embedded in micrometre-sized protein crystals called polyhedra. The remarkable stability of polyhedra means that, like bacterial spores, these insect viruses remain infectious for years in soil. The environmental persistence of polyhedra is the cause of significant losses in silkworm cocoon harvests but has also been exploited against pests in biological alternatives to chemical insecticides. Although polyhedra have been extensively characterized since the early 1900s, their atomic organization remains elusive. Here we describe the 2 A crystal structure of both recombinant and infectious silkworm cypovirus polyhedra determined using crystals 5-12 micrometres in diameter purified from insect cells. These are the smallest crystals yet used for de novo X-ray protein structure determination. We found that polyhedra are made of trimers of the viral polyhedrin protein and contain nucleotides. Although the shape of these building blocks is reminiscent of some capsid trimers, polyhedrin has a new fold and has evolved to assemble in vivo into three-dimensional cubic crystals rather than icosahedral shells. The polyhedrin trimers are extensively cross-linked in polyhedra by non-covalent interactions and pack with an exquisite molecular complementarity similar to that of antigen-antibody complexes. The resulting ultrastable and sealed crystals shield the virus particles from environmental damage. The structure suggests that polyhedra can serve as the basis for the development of robust and versatile nanoparticles for biotechnological applications such as microarrays and biopesticides.
pubmed:commentsCorrections
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Mar
pubmed:issn
1476-4687
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:day
1
pubmed:volume
446
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
97-101
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2007
pubmed:articleTitle
The molecular organization of cypovirus polyhedra.
pubmed:affiliation
School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't