The Importance of Calcium Ions in Poly-A RNA Mediated Tobacco Mosaic Virus-Like Rod Formation.

Due to its well-understood structural and chemical features, Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) has attracted interest as a template for producing a variety of novel nanostructured materials and devices. However, for TMV based nanotechnology to reach its potential, controlling the size of TMV rods without using infectious native RNA is a key issue. Here, we re-examine the interactions of TMV coat protein (CP) with poly A RNA. Our results confirm that poly A RNA can induce virus-like rod formation through interactions with the coat protein. In addition, we show that calcium ions have an important role in stabilizing such rods, a previously unknown interaction that enhances the reliability of poly A induced assembly.