Ganser B K, Li S, Klishko V Y, Finch J T, Sundquist W I
Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA.
Science. 1999 Jan 1;283(5398):80-3. doi: 10.1126/science.283.5398.80.
The genome of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is packaged within an unusual conical core particle located at the center of the infectious virion. The core is composed of a complex of the NC (nucleocapsid) protein and genomic RNA, surrounded by a shell of the CA (capsid) protein. A method was developed for assembling cones in vitro using pure recombinant HIV-1 CA-NC fusion proteins and RNA templates. These synthetic cores are capped at both ends and appear similar in size and morphology to authentic viral cores. It is proposed that both viral and synthetic cores are organized on conical hexagonal lattices, which by Euler's theorem requires quantization of their cone angles. Electron microscopic analyses revealed that the cone angles of synthetic cores were indeed quantized into the five allowed angles. The viral core and most synthetic cones exhibited cone angles of approximately 19 degrees (the narrowest of the allowed angles). These observations suggest that the core of HIV is organized on the principles of a fullerene cone, in analogy to structures recently observed for elemental carbon.
人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）的基因组被包裹在位于感染性病毒体中心的一个不同寻常的锥形核心颗粒内。该核心由核衣壳（NC）蛋白与基因组RNA的复合物组成，周围是一层衣壳（CA）蛋白外壳。利用纯重组HIV-1 CA-NC融合蛋白和RNA模板，开发了一种在体外组装锥体的方法。这些合成核心两端封闭，在大小和形态上与真实病毒核心相似。有人提出，病毒核心和合成核心都是在锥形六边形晶格上组织起来的，根据欧拉定理，这需要对它们的锥角进行量化。电子显微镜分析表明，合成核心的锥角确实被量化为五个允许的角度。病毒核心和大多数合成锥体的锥角约为19度（允许角度中最窄的）。这些观察结果表明，HIV的核心是按照富勒烯锥体的原理组织起来的，类似于最近观察到的元素碳结构。
