Maize Streak Virus: Single and Gemini Capsid Architecture
Antonette Bennett,
Joshua A. Hull,
Mario Mietzsch,
Nilakshee Bhattacharya,
Paul Chipman,
Robert McKenna
Affiliations
Antonette Bennett
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine Center for Structural Biology, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0245, USA
Joshua A. Hull
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine Center for Structural Biology, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0245, USA
Mario Mietzsch
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine Center for Structural Biology, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0245, USA
Nilakshee Bhattacharya
Biological Science Imaging Facility (BSIR), Department of Biology, Florida State University, 89 Chieftain Way, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4370, USA
Paul Chipman
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine Center for Structural Biology, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0245, USA
Robert McKenna
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine Center for Structural Biology, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0245, USA
Geminiviridae are ssDNA plant viruses whose control has both economical and agricultural importance. Their capsids assemble into two distinct architectural forms: (i) a T = 1 icosahedral and (ii) a unique twinned quasi-isometric capsid. Described here are the high-resolution structures of both forms of the maize streak virus using cryo-EM. A comparison of these two forms provides details of the coat protein (CP) and CP–CP and CP–genome interactions that govern the assembly of the architecture of the capsids. Comparative analysis of other representative members of Geminiviridae reveals structural conservation of 60–95% compared to a sequence similarity of 21–30%. This study provides a structural atlas of these plant pathogens and suggests possible antiviral-targetable regions of these capsids.
