If a virus succeeds in planting its genome in a cell, the cell is doomed. Forced to follow the genome’s orders, the cell makes the enzymes needed to replicate the genome and the proteins that constitute the viral coat. From coat proteins and replicated genomes, new, identical copies of the virus spontaneously assemble. The cell bursts, the viruses escape.
Outside its cellular host, the viral genome would disintegrate without the protection of its coat, the capsid. But if the capsid were too strong, the infectious genome would be trapped inside. Could that balance be upset to defeat virus-based diseases? New research from UCLA into capsid structure suggests it could. 1
As determined by x-ray and electron crystallography, capsids are highly symmetrical, especially those of small, spherical viruses, such as poliovirus, norovirus, and the turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) shown in figure 1.
In 1956, armed with little more than...
