Distinct DNA exit and packaging portals in the virus Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus.
Icosahedral double-stranded DNA viruses use a single portal for genome delivery and packaging. The extensive structural similarity revealed by such portals in diverse viruses, as well as their invariable positioning at a unique icosahedral vertex, led to the consensus that a particular, highly conserved vertex-portal architecture is essential for viral DNA translocations. Here we present an exception to this paradigm by demonstrating that genome delivery and packaging in the virus Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus occur through two distinct portals. By using high-resolution techniques, including electron tomography and cryo-scanning electron microscopy, we show that Mimivirus genome delivery entails a large-scale conformational change of the capsid, whereby five icosahedral faces open up. This opening, which occurs at a unique vertex of the capsid that we coined the "stargate", allows for the formation of a massive membrane conduit through which the viral DNA is released. A transient aperture centered at an icosahedral face distal to the DNA delivery site acts as a non-vertex DNA packaging portal. In conjunction with comparative genomic studies, our observations imply a viral packaging pathway akin to bacterial DNA segregation, which might be shared by diverse internal membrane-containing viruses.
Zauberman
Nathan
N
Department of Organic Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Mutsafi
Yael
Y
Halevy
Daniel Ben
DB
Shimoni
Eyal
E
Klein
Eugenia
E
Xiao
Chuan
C
Sun
Siyang
S
Minsky
Abraham
A
D000048:Acanthamoeba / Q000821:virology*; D000818:Animals; D002213:Capsid / Q000378:metabolism; D042003:DNA Packaging; D004267:DNA Viruses / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D053586:Virus Internalization
D004279:DNA, Viral