Segmented negative strand RNA virus nucleoprotein structure

Abstract

Negative strand RNA virus (NSV) genomes are never free, but always found assembled with multiple copies of their nucleoprotein, as RNPs. A flurry of papers describing the X-ray crystal structures of several segmented NSV nucleoproteins have recently appeared. The most significant feature of these various structures is that the arms that are used to oligomerize the nucleoproteins on their genome RNAs are highly flexible, permitting these RNPs to assume virtually unlimited geometries. The structural flexibility of segmented NSV RNPs is undoubtedly important in all aspects of their biology, including genome replication and circularization, and the selection of one copy of each segment for packaging into virus particles.