Integrative Approaches to Study Virus Structures

Abstract

A virus particle must work as a strongroom to protect its genome, but at the same time it must undergo dramatic conformational changes to infect the cell in order to replicate and assemble progeny. Thus, viruses are miniaturized wonders whose structural complexity requires investigation by a combination of different techniques that can tackle both static and dynamic processes. In this chapter, we will illustrate how major structural techniques such as X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy can be combined with other techniques to determine the structure of complex viruses. The power of these hybrid approaches is discussed through a number of examples.

Keywords: Bacteriophage; Capsid; Cryogenic electron microscopy; Cryogenic electron tomography; Crystal structure; Dissociation; Electron microscopy; Electron tomography; Fitting; Hybrid methods; Mutagenesis; Small-angle X-ray scattering; Virus; X-ray crystallography.