Klug A
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1999 Mar 29;354(1383):531-5. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1999.0404.
A short account is given of the physical and chemical studies that have led to an understanding of the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus particle and how it is assembled from its constituent coat protein and RNA. The assembly is a much more complex process than might have been expected from the simplicity of the helical design of the particle. The protein forms an obligatory intermediate (a cylindrical disk composed of two layers of protein units), which recognizes a specific RNA hairpin sequence. This extraordinary mechanism simultaneously fulfils the physical requirement for nucleating the growth of the helical particle and the biological requirement for specific recognition of the viral DNA.
本文简要介绍了一些物理和化学研究,这些研究使人们了解了烟草花叶病毒颗粒的结构,以及它是如何由其组成的衣壳蛋白和RNA组装而成的。组装过程比从颗粒螺旋设计的简单性所预期的要复杂得多。蛋白质形成一种必需的中间体(由两层蛋白质单元组成的圆柱形盘),它识别特定的RNA发夹序列。这种非凡的机制同时满足了螺旋颗粒生长成核的物理要求和病毒DNA特异性识别的生物学要求。