Stuart D I, Gouet P, Grimes J, Malby R, Diprose J, Zientara S, Burroughs J N, Mertens P P
Oxford Center for Molecular Sciences, New Chemistry Laboratory, U.K.
Arch Virol Suppl. 1998;14:235-50. doi: 10.1007/978-3-7091-6823-3_21.
We are using crystallographic methods to investigate the structure of AHSV and BTV. Our initial approach was to investigate the structure of the major protein component of the viral core, VP7(T13). This trimeric protein has been studied in several crystal forms from both orbiviruses and reveals a structure made up of conserved domains, capable of conformational changes and possessing a cleavage site. Further crystallographic analyses of native particles have provided a picture of the VP7(T13) and VP3(T2) layers of the BTV core. The VP7(T13) layer consists of 260 trimers arranged rather symmetrically and possessing very similar structures, thereby following the rules of quasi equivalence. The VP3(T2) layer is thin and contains 120 copies of 100 kDa protein arranged as 60 approximate dimers. This type of icosahedral construction has not been observed before and appears to contain a genome which is highly ordered. We anticipate that all of these features will be common to AHSV.
我们正在使用晶体学方法研究非洲马瘟病毒（AHSV）和蓝舌病毒（BTV）的结构。我们最初的方法是研究病毒核心的主要蛋白质成分VP7(T13)的结构。这种三聚体蛋白已在来自这两种环状病毒的几种晶体形式中进行了研究，揭示了一种由保守结构域组成的结构，能够发生构象变化并具有一个切割位点。对天然病毒颗粒的进一步晶体学分析提供了BTV核心的VP7(T13)和VP3(T2)层的图像。VP7(T13)层由260个三聚体组成，排列相当对称且结构非常相似，从而遵循准等价规则。VP3(T2)层很薄，包含120个100 kDa蛋白质拷贝，排列成60个近似二聚体。这种二十面体结构以前从未被观察到，并且似乎包含一个高度有序的基因组。我们预计所有这些特征在AHSV中都是常见的。
