Molecular Assembly of Virus.
This short review article describes the recent progress in the research field of virus assembly. Two fundamental types of macromolecular interactions: the protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid are involved in the process of virus assembly. Virus assembly at least includes the following three major questions: 1. How the capsid subunits recognize and interact with each other? 2. What protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions are involved in this process? 3. How is the specific selection of viral nucleic acid to be packaged into the virions? Virus assembly is an essential event in virus multiplication and maturation. Elucidation of virus assembly is not only important for better understanding of the viral maturation process, also will play the critical role in practical application, such as the development of vaccine against virus infection, the antiviral drug design and so on.
Gong
Zu-Xun
ZX
Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China. gongzx@sunm.shcnc.ac.cn