Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
Jagiellonian University, Solaris National Synchrotron Radiation Centre, Czerwone Maki 98, 30-392 Cracow, Poland.
Nanoscale. 2022 Feb 24;14(8):3224-3233. doi: 10.1039/d1nr05650f.
The increasing interest in virus-like particles (VLPs) has been reflected by the growing number of studies on their assembly and application. However, the formation of complete VLPs is a complex phenomenon, making it difficult to rationally design VLPs with desired features . In this paper, we describe VLPs assembled from the recombinant capsid protein of brome mosaic virus (BMV). The analysis of VLPs was performed by Cryo-EM reconstructions and allowed us to visualize a few classes of VLPs, giving insight into the VLP self-assembly process. Apart from the mature icosahedral VLP practically identical with native virions, we describe putative VLP intermediates displaying non-icosahedral arrangements of capsomers, proposed to occur before the final disorder-order transition stage of icosahedral VLP assembly. Some of the described VLP classes show a lack of protein shell continuity, possibly resulting from too strong interaction with the cargo (in this case tRNA) with the capsid protein. We believe that our results are a useful prerequisite for the rational design of VLPs in the future and lead the way to the effective production of modified VLPs.
越来越多的人对病毒样颗粒（VLPs）的组装和应用进行了研究，这反映出人们对它们的兴趣日益浓厚。然而，完整 VLPs 的形成是一个复杂的现象，使得难以合理设计具有所需特征的 VLPs。在本文中，我们描述了由大麦黄花叶病毒（BMV）的重组衣壳蛋白组装而成的 VLPs。通过 Cryo-EM 重建对 VLPs 进行了分析，使我们能够可视化几种 VLPs 类别，深入了解 VLP 自组装过程。除了与天然病毒粒子几乎完全相同的成熟二十面体 VLP 外，我们还描述了假定的 VLP 中间体，它们显示出衣壳子的非二十面体排列，据推测，这种排列发生在最终的二十面体 VLP 组装的无序-有序转变阶段之前。所描述的一些 VLP 类别显示出蛋白质外壳连续性的缺失，这可能是由于与衣壳蛋白的货物（在这种情况下是 tRNA）的相互作用太强所致。我们相信，我们的结果是未来合理设计 VLPs 的有用前提，并为有效生产修饰的 VLPs 铺平了道路。
