Figure 1 | Scientific Reports

Figure 1

From: The structures of a naturally empty cowpea mosaic virus particle and its genome-containing counterpart by cryo-electron microscopy

Figure 1

An introduction to Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV). (a) CPMVs single stranded bipartite RNA genome. RNA-1 is ~6 kb in length and encodes viral proteins required for replication. RNA-2 is ~3.5 kb in length and encodes the structural coat proteins and the movement protein required for moving CPMV virions from cell to cell. (b) Gradient centrifugation of wild-type CPMV permits separation into three components. Empty CPMV particles sediment at the top (CPMV-T), CPMV containing RNA-2 sediments in the middle (CPMV-M) and RNA-1 containing CPMV particles sediment at the bottom of a density gradient (CPMV-B). (c) An asymmetric unit of CPMV empty virus-like particle (eVLP), (PDB 5a33). The large coat protein subunit (L subunit, green) and the small coat protein subunit (S subunit, blue). The C terminal extension, only visualised in a eVLP is coloured pink. (d) The icosahedral organisation of CPMV using the EM derived map of eVLP (EMD-3014). Each of the 60 asymmetric units comprises one copy of the L subunit and the S subunit (coloured as in 1C). A view down the two-fold axis is shown.

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